Grand Duchess Agatha Cuckanov of Bird Island
by I. M. Rally
Summary: AU: An eighteen-year-old amnesiac orphan named Aggie, wants to find out who she was with the help of a con-bird, Red, who wish to take advantage of her likeness to the Grand Duchess. Set in the movie-verse
1. The Prologue

**Hey guys. You know, I decided to make an AU that was inspired by the movie, _Anastasia,_ one of my favorite movies. So for the viewers who voted from my poll, thank you for voting. I also like to thank brandonchasepowell and CB1610 for helping me make this story. I hope you enjoy the prologue!**

* * *

 **The Prologue**

* * *

The story starts when the Dowager Empress Matilda does the narration.

 _"There was a time, not very long ago, when we lived in an enchanted world of elegant palaces and grand parties. The year was 1996 and my son, Peckinpah, was the Czar of Bird Island."_

The Dowager Empress Matilda Cuckanov took a boat from Tropigal Paradise to Bird Island and arrived to the royal palace of the Cuckanov-family to attend her son's celebration. The palace was filled by the highest of the highest of Bird Island aristocracy, laughing and dancing to majestic tunes as the imperial family, consisting of czar himself, Peckinpah , his beautiful wife, Silver, and their impressive five children, joyfully mingled.

"Hello, darling!" Matilda greeted to Peckinpah as she watched her son and daughter-in-law dancing with their children while sitting on her reserved seat of the royal family.

The oldest was Stella, the pink 18-year-old bird with big head feathers, and blue eyes with eyelashes. The second oldest was Poppy, the yellow 16-year-old bird that has 3 spiky tufts of hair that are waved back and a yellow and pink tail feathers, pink spots on her cheeks, and has green eyes, so her overall appearance looks like a cockatiel. The middlest is Dahlia, the orange 14-year-old with 2 squarish pieces of hair. The second youngest was Agatha, the white 8-year-old hatchling with long black hair, dark brown eyes, and crowded white feathers all over her body (except legs). And the youngest and only son was Luca, the blue 4-year-old hatchling with two spiked strands of his crest feathers upwards and dark blue eyes.

 _"We were celebrating the 300th anniversary of the family's rule, and that night, no star brighter than our sweet Agatha, my youngest granddaughter."_

Agatha left her parents and siblings, and rush over to her grandmother and gave her a drawing that she had made all by herself. Matilda giggled as she inspected the drawing. It was look like a bird ride on a pig.

 _"She begged me not to return to Tropigal Paradise, so I had a very special gift made for her to make the separation easier for both of us."_

Matilda took out a small hand-sized party cannon that its barrel is pink, and its stand was yellow with no wheels, and handed it to her granddaughter. Agatha's eyes widened as she looked closer at the beautiful gift, which was small enough to fit in the hand of her grandmother's hand.

"For me?" She asked. "Is it a party cannon?"

As she looked at the small cannon, she hardly noticed a little red hatchling hiding behind a curtain nearby, who spied on the two while eating an apple. However, it didn't take long until he was grabbed by a big maroon bird, Terence, who grumpily mumbled as he carried him off in said direction. "Red! You belong in the kitchen!"

"Look." Matilda said, as she winded the box up with a key connected to a silver chain necklace. Music began to play as the cannon blasts a few confetti from the hole while the music plays. Agatha gasped as she recognized the musical melody that came from the cannon.

"It plays our lullaby!" she said.

Matilda nodded and smiled sweetly. "You can play it at night before you go to sleep and pretend that it's me singing." The dreamy tune from the cannon continued to play. That was when Matilda and her granddaughter began to sing.

 _On the wind._  
 _'Cross the sea._  
 _Hear the song to remember._  
 _Soon you'll be home with me._  
 _Once Upon of December._

The two giggled as Matilda took of the necklace with the key and gave it to Agatha as well. She then pointed a finger at the key. "Read what it says."

Agatha looked closely at the key on the chain-necklace, and she quickly noticed an inscription written on it. "'Together in Tropigal Paradise.'" She looked up at her grandmother, gasped in joy and hugged her again. "Really?! Oh Grandma!" Matilda returned the hug and laughed lovingly.

But their blissful happiness was cut short as the lights went off, and the music stop. Everyone in the ballroom went silent immediately.

 _"But we would never be together in Tropigal Paradise, for a dark shadow had descended upon the house of the Cuckanov."_

The dark shadow belongs to a green fat pig, wearing a brown robe with hood, accompanied by his assistant, Ross. This, combined with a malicious grin on his face, made his look as grim as revenge.

 _"His name was Leonard. We thought he was trusted friend, but he was a fraud, power-mad, and dangerous when he attempt to steal every eggs in this island."_

Peckinpah arose from his throne, walked down to face the pig and shot him an angry look. "How dare you return to the palace?!"

Leonard's eyes widened in surprise. He lowered his hood, giving everyone a good look at his face with a short beard under his chin, and tried to talk to the czar with a sweet voice. "But I am your confidant."

"Confidant? Hah! You are a traitor. Get out!" Peckinpah pointed towards the door. The royal guards had started to make their move, and surrounded the two pigs.

Ross was nervous and afraid, but Leonard on the other hand glared up at Peckinpah and put his hand underneath his robe, seemingly grabbing something that hanged across his chest. "You think you can banish the great Leonard?" The pig took out a glowing reliquary from his robe. The reliquary was composed of glass and metal with sinister depictions of demons, devils and skulls carved into it's design, and crowned with a large pig-head on top with it's mouth open. Within the transparent glass of the reliquary, a supernatural green glow shifted and pulsated. "By the unholy powers vested in me, I banish you with a curse!"

Everyone gasped at this announcement.

"Mark my words!" Leonard continued as pointed his finger to Peckinpah. "You and your family will die within the fortnight. I will not rest until I see the end of the Cuckanov line forever!" He shoots the chandelier that has a number "300" with a beam of green light, using his reliquary, and the chandelier dropped down and hit the ballroom floor.

* * *

 _"Consumed by his hatred for Peckinpah and his family, Leonard sold his soul for the power to destroy them."_

"Go." Leonard cooed to the evil relic. "Fulfill your dark purpose, and seal the fate of the Czar and his family, once and for all."

As he whispered these words, puffs of green and smoke-like essence crawled out of the mouth of the pig-head, taking the shapes pig-like demons with bat wings that flew off in the night, eager to please their master.

 _"From that moment on, the spark of unhappiness in our island was fanned into a flame that would soon destroy our lives... Forever."_

Barely a week later, on a stormy winter's night, a large mob of angry pigs broke down the palace gates. They stormed into the palace, firing rifles and tearing down everything in sight. The servants and the whole Cuckanov-family ran in fear towards nearest exit.

"Hurry children!" Peckinpah cried out and looked back, making sure that as many as possible would make it out before the pigs caught up with them.

"My music cannon!" Agatha suddenly made a turn and rushed back to her bedroom.

"Agatha!" Matilda cried out as she followed her granddaughter. "Come back! COME BACK!"

Agatha didn't hear her though, and rushed inside her room to retrieve what she had forgotten. She grabbed it from her bed/nest, just as Matilda came into her room and shuts the door. As she did, screams of terror along with thunderous rifle shots could be heard behind her. Matilda looked around, her face stricken with fright and grief, and ran over to Agatha. The two held each other closely as they realized that they were cornered with not means of getting out. That was until a little red hatchling, a boy who was at approximately the same age as Agatha, suddenly appeared from a secret passage way in the bedroom wall.

The little red hatchling ran over and guided the two royal birds to the secret passage way. "Please, hurry! Come this way. Out the servants' quarters!"

Matilda and Aggie immediately follow the red hatchling and entered the passageway, but Agatha dropped her beloved music-cannon on the floor in the process.

At the same time, Ross took a peak from the window and saw the red hatchling helped the two royals escape. "Leonard, she's getting away!" He reported to his master.

Agatha looked back when she realized she dropped her music-cannon. She was scared too, but she really didn't want lose her grandmother's wonderful gift to her. "But my music-cannon!"" She tried to go back to get it, but the red hatchling stopped her.

"Go! Go!" He shouted, pushed her in and shut the door behind him. Now closed, it was nearly impossible to find the secret door. The red hatchling, who was a responsible but slightly having anger issues named Red, could hear gruff voices and heavy steps approaching. He quickly kneeled down and picked up the music-cannon and hid it in his small bag. If he hadn't, these pigs would have no doubt stolen it and made it part of their loot.

Suddenly, the doors to the room busted open. Charging in came green pigs with helmets and rifles in their hands. One with a larger helmet was the leader in the front looked around, his eyes narrowed angrily as he spotted young Red. "Where are they, hatchling?!"

Red quickly tried to fight them off by throwing rocks at them, but he was then grabbed and blunted in the head from the butt of a rifle, knocking him out unconsciously.

* * *

Meanwhile, outside of the palace, Agatha and her grandmother made their escape, running along the frozen river and staying out of sight.

"Keep up with me, darling!" Matilda said as she pulled Aggie by her hand.

They had made it to the underside of a bridge, but suddenly, Leonard saw them run, and jumped off the bridge and grabbed Agatha's leg, attempt to kill her himself.

"Leonard!" Matilda gasped, and held Agatha close to her.

"Let me go! Please!" Agatha cried as she tried to shake Leonard off of her foot

Leonard tried to pull her closer, smiling evilly while Matilda tried to pull Agatha back. "You'll never escape me, hatchling! Never!"

Suddenly, the ice of the river break due to Leonard's weight, forcing him to let Agatha go and fall into icy water. He was waist-down in the river, and tried to climb back up with his hands, scratching at the surface of the ice in front of him. He then searched for the relic, which unfortunately for him had fallen out of his robe and rolled towards Ross, who was watching the events at a safe distance. The ice cracked even more, and Leonard started to sink as his robe absorbed the water and weighted him own. That's when he started to cry out in desperation and fear. "Ross!"

"Master!" Ross cried out as he watched his master drowned in terrified and the two royals ran away. When his foot touched the side of the relic, the light within had started to die out. He looked around in all directions. This hadn't worked out the way it was supposed to. What was he supposed to do now?

* * *

Matilda and Agatha on the other hand had made their way to the train station. Running across the platform, they made their way to the train that would be leaving St. Petersbird. It had already started to leave, and the two birds had to run as fast as they could. But the station was crowded, and while Matilda had managed to clime aboard the back of the moving train, Agatha was still quite a bit behind her, reaching for her grandma as the train was moving away from her.

"Grandma!" Agatha cried out as she picked up the pace to catch up.

Matilda reached out to try and get a hold of Aggie's hand as the train moved faster. A few birds on her side tried to reach Agatha too, but didn't have same good range as Matilda had. "Here, take my hand! Hold on to my hand!" Finally, Matilda and Agatha's hands locked, but it proved to be difficult to maintain the grip, as train was going even faster.

Agatha looked up at her grandmother, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes. "Don't let go!" She called out in a pleading voice.

But no matter how hard they held on, their grip started to loosen, and became non-existent as Agatha tripped and fell forward, hitting her head hard on the ground and knocking her out cold.

"AAGGAAATTHHHAAAAA!" Matilda screamed mournfully as she watched in horror as her granddaughter disappeared in the surrounding crowd of birds. She tried climb off, but the carriage was overcrowded, and the birds around her held her back now that the train was moving too fast for her to make it off without seriously hurting herself. She desperately cried out for her only remaining granddaughter; that little white-feathered girl who loved to draw, sing, make faces and sometimes terrorize the cook.

* * *

 _"So many lives were destroyed that night. What had always been, was now gone forever. And Agatha, my beloved grandchild. I never saw her again."_

* * *

 **I hoped you like it. More chapters coming soon. Pls review :-)**

 **Cast:  
Agatha/Aggie-Anastasia/Anya**  
 **Red-Dimitri**  
 **Bomb-Vladimir**  
 **Chuck-Pooka (not as a dog)**  
 **Leonard-Rasputin**  
 **Ross-Bartok**  
 **Matilda-Marie**  
 **Willow-Sophie** **  
** **Peckinpah-Nicholas II**  
 **Silver-Alexandra**  
 **Stella-Olga**  
 **Poppy-Tatiana**  
 **Dahlia-Maria**  
 **Luca-Alexei**


	2. Ten years later in St Petersbird

**Ten years later in St. Petersbird**

* * *

Ten years had passed since the revolution, and these years had not been kind to the place of St. Petersbird or Bird Island in general.

St. Petersbird is gloomy, bleak, and so cold that tiny icicles would form under birds' feathers. The working class of birds that lived there barely managed under the strict eyes of the new government. Job opportunities were scarce, and the few honest working places that were available had conditions that were even harsher than the weather. One of the few petty pleasures that got them through the day was their shared love of gossip, and in these last few weeks, beaks had been moving and whispering even more rapidly than usual. It was all because of a new rumor in St. Petersbird, which had come from across the sea and then been spread across the land like a wild fire.

The Dowager Empress, Matilda Cuckanov, the mother of the now deceased czar of Bird Island, Peckinpah Cuckanov, had offered a large reward for whoever could reunite her with her youngest grandchild.

This part of the Bird Island, birds' history had by then become a legend. The revolution, the mass-execution of the royal family, the escape of the Dowager empress, and above all, the mystery of the missing grand duchess, Agatha Cuckanov, was a well-known story that was known across the entire world. Out of five children that had lost their lives that night, only she had been unaccounted for.

The government themselves was not keen on the rumor that she may have survived, but this didn't stop the people from speculating among themselves. More than half of them would have probably given their right wing for a piece of that reward-money. Unfortunately, missing grand duchesses didn't grow on trees.

Few knew this as good as Bomb, a Greater Antillean Bullfinch that was currently making his way across the crowd of birds, looking for someone. As his species, Bomb is this kind of bird with bulky build with black feathered arms, his eyes are blue, the orange top of his head feather is yellow, and has a black spiky tail on his didn't need to look long for the person he was looking for, as when he passed by a coconut tree, he heard a whistle. He looked around and looked up to see the familiar face of his friend, Red.

The two were friends since they worked together, and secretly became con-birds to collect money for their own living. They buy and collect everything that the vendor birds sell that were belong to the royal family from Owlrine Palace.

"Well, Red, I got us a theatre." Bomb smiled at his friend

"Everything's going according to plan. All we need is the girl." Red gave off a sly grin, and swung around a suitcase that he held in his left wing. The two of them headed to said theater, which was located on the other side of town. "Just think, Bomb, no more forging papers, no more stolen goods. We'll have three tickets out of here: One for you, one for me and one for Agatha!"

"Red, are you sure this plan of yours is gonna work?" Bomb asked and looked unsure about his partner's plan.

Red, however, chuckled and hugged his black friend, looking him straight in the eyes with a look full of confidence. "Don't worry, big guy, this plan is gonna work. All we need to do now is to audition every female white birds in St. Petersbird that looks like the Cuckanov-girl, find the right one to play the part, clean her, teach her what to say, dress her up and take her to Tropigal Paradise. And after that, the old empress will pay us that ten million reward. And then… We'll be rich, we'll be out, and St. Petersbird will have even more to talk about."

But, Bomb didn't look impressed. In fact, he hardly EVER looked impressed. "Something tells me that we're not gonna be the first to have come up with this idea. The old lady must have line of posers outside her mansion reaching as far as Piggy Island!"

"Probably, but I am willing to bet that not even half of them knows as much about the royal family as much as we do." Red petted the suitcase knowingly, which along with various personal possessions also contained a small party cannon that he had kept in his possession all these years. "Now, let's not keep the ladies waiting."

* * *

Far across of St. Petersbird, at the old building of Hatchlings' Orphanage. The owner of the orphanage, Gale, leading an eighteen-year-old white bird with full of crowded white feathers and very long hair, named Aggie, out of the entrance of the orphanage.

"I got you a job in the fish factory. You go down this path till you get to the fork in the road. Go left..." Gale scowled at Aggie, who was waving goodbye to her friends. "Are you listening?!"

Aggie sighs, turns around and faces her mean caretaker. "I'm listening, Comrade Gale."

"You've been a thorn in my side since you were brought here." Gale grabbed Aggie's scarf, and dragged her to the gate. "Acting like the Queen of nest, instead of the nameless no-account you are. For the last ten years, I've fed you, I've clothed you, I've...

Aggie rolls her eyes and finishes Gale's sentence for her. "Kept a roof over my head."

Gale gasped as she successfully opened the gate, and gives Aggie an un-amused look. "How is it you don't have a clue who you were before you came to us, but you can remember all that?

Aggie showed her necklace. "I do have a clue to..."

"Ach! I know." The purple bird scoffed as she read an inscription written on the key sarcastically. "'Together in Tropigal Paradise'" Then she asked Aggie. "So, you want to go to Tropigal Paradise to find your family?"

Aggie nodded.

Gale laughed. "Little Miss Aggie, it's time to take your place in life. In life and in line. And be grateful, too." She pushed Aggie out, threw the scarf to her, and slammed the gate shut as she laughed maniacally. "'Together in Tropigal Paradise'!"

The purple bird laugh loudly as Aggie, with a scowl on her face, moves towards the directed destination.

* * *

"'Be grateful, Aggie.'" She mimics what Gale said to her as she arrived at the fork in the road. "Oh I'm grateful alright. Grateful to get away!" Aggie was about to take the left road to canary's village. '''Go left''' she says. Well, I know what's to the left. I'll be 'Aggie the little orphan' forever." Then, she was about to take the right road to St. Petersbird "But if I go right, maybe I could find..." She stopped right there, and glanced at the necklace. "Whoever gave me this necklace must have loved me. Ugh, this is crazy. Me? Go to Tropigal Paradise?" She groans in frustration as she doesn't know where to go. She called someone in the air. "Send me a sign! A hint! Anything!" She sat down in the middle below the sign felling hopeless and lost.

Suddenly, a fast yellow blur passed by her, and was running randomly, until it stopped in front of her, revealing a yellow canary, with black head feathers and tail feathers, and green eyes. "Are you looking for a sign?!" The yellow bird stared at her.

"What?' Aggie asked as she was confused.

"You asked the right bird." He said as he took out his own sign. A statue that its body is made of twigs, its head made from a coconut, and the statue was holding three signs; right hand was _'Be happy'_ , left hand was _'Smile'_ , and on its body was _'Welcome Angry Birds Today'_ "This is my sign. I made it myself His name is Billy."

Aggie rolled her eyes, and smiled. "That's a good sign, but that's not a sign I was expected."

The yellow bird turned his smile to frown. "Oh. I'm sorry." He hid Billy behind him.

"No, it's okay. I was waiting for a sign of where I should go." She explained. "I want to go to Tropigal Paradise to find my family, but I'm not sure of it."

"TROPIGAL PARADISE?!" The yellow bird squealed. "I've always dreamed of going there! Can I come too?"

Aggie wasn't so sure to bring a stranger with her to go to Tropigal Paradise, but this bird wants to go there too. "Well, I kinda need a company anyway."

"Great!"

"But, I don't know where to go."

The yellow felt sorry for the white bird, until he has an idea. He quickly took the scarf from Aggie, and pointed the road to St. Petersbird. "I know, let's take that road."

Aggie glanced at the road to where the yellow bird was pointed. "I don't think so."

The yellow bird won't give up convincing Aggie to take that road, so he playfully sways the scarf to her, much to Aggie's annoyance. "I don't have time to play right now, okay? I'm waiting for a sign."

The yellow bird ran around the white bird to tie her with the scarf.

"Would you please leave me alone? Gimme that back!" Aggie tried to struggle from the scarf, but she fell down when the yellow bird pulled the scarf, and convinced her to take the road to St. Petersbird.

"Oh, great. A yellow canary that I've never met before wants me to go to St. Petersbird." Aggie rolled her eyes.

The yellow bird starts to talk in faster mood "Hey, apparently somebody didn't get the memo that we like to start on time to know each other. Because you're waiting for something like a sign, don't let it happen again. Hi, my name is Chuck. I'm sorry we got off on the wrong foot. I like you a lot." He winked at the young adult white bird.

Aggie just ignores that, until she gasped as she realized something. Could this really be the sign she had asked for?

"Okay, I can take a hint. I'll follow your advice" Aggie agreed as she grabbed her scarf, and introduced herself to Chuck. "By the way, hi, my name is Aggie." She extended her hand in front of him for a hand shake.

Chuck shakes hands with her. "Nice meeting you too."

After she shook her hand with Chuck, Aggie started to walk down the path while Chuck followed her as it started snowing. (Pls listen: "Journey to the past")

By the time they had made it to the borders of the big city, seeing the high buildings who at their very top were accompanied only by the rising smoke of the factories and workhouses, the white bird/albino blackbird and the yellow canary had become close friends. Now when they were finally there, they jumped in joy as they were excited to go to Tropigal Paradise.

* * *

 **Well, this is the second chapter. I hope you guys like it very much. Oh, pls review to let me know that you like it. More chapters coming soon.**


	3. Memories

**Disclaimer: I don't own Angry Birds and the script or anything else.**

 **This is just a parody**

 **Agatha/Aggie belongs to me**

* * *

As she and her new companion friend, Chuck made their way to the ticket booth, Aggie is going to purchase some tickets for herself, and her new yellow friend since she had saved some few allowance back from the orphanage. "Two tickets to Tropigal Paradise, please."

"Exit visa." An oriole, named Bubbles, extended his hand to Aggie to take her exit visa.

"Exit visa?" Aggie realized that she doesn't have an exit vise, nor Chuck has.

" No exit-visas, NO TICKETS!" Bubbles shouted as he closed the hatch.

"How rude!" Chuck hissed, then turned to Aggie. "Do you want me to show Billy?"

"No thanks, Chuck." Aggie said. "I don't think I need another sign right now."

Suddenly, someone poke her from behind the two friends.

They turned around to see a family of green birds. Edward, and his wife, Eva, carried their two hatchlings.

"See Red. He can help." Edward whispered.

"Where can we find him?" Aggie asked

"At the old palace." Eva answered. "But you didn't hear it from us, because he made an accident in our son's hatchday party, and… we can't explain. Now go!"

"Hmm, Red. Thank you for your help madam." Aggie and Chuck bowed their heads in gratitude, then started to walk down across the street.

* * *

Meanwhile inside an old theater, Red and Bomb were holding the auditions for the role of Agatha. But despite the large amount of candidates that had turned up, none of them looked even remotely similar to the grand duchess. Some were too old, some too young, others too tall, others way too short. Most of them didn't even have the pure white feathers, or have a long black hair, and absolutely no-one possessed the dark-brown eyes that the princess has. Another big problem was that these ladies couldn't act as royalty to save their lives.

"No, no, like a princess! Dance like a feather…" Bomb said with a strained voice as he gave yet another female white bird some well-needed instructions.

He and Red were sitting behind a desk positioned between the rows of empty audience-seats and the lit stage in front of them, both of them with tired expressions and a patience that was running dry.

"Nice. Nice. Very nice." Red muttered as the latest candidate walked of the stage. He checked off yet another name in the long list of actresses in front of him. "Thank you. Next, please."

What came next was the worse to come and quite possibly the most ridiculous thing they had ever caught sight of. The next candidate was not a white bird, nor even woman, but a male, very sick, fat bird named Cyrus, with grey feathers with light black spots at his body, wears a long black wig.

"Grandma," the Cyrus cried out in a high-pitched squeal. "It's me! Agatha...Achoo!" Then, he sneezes. A hard, clapping sound then started to resonate from below the stage. The eagle, a lovable but rather lazy and overweight fellow named Mighty Eagle, mistook it for applause and gleefully bowed.

The true nature of the sound though was a far cry from what he imagined, as it really was the sound of Bomb banging his head on the desk in front of him in frustration.

"Oh brother!" Red dropped his quill and face palmed.

* * *

They left some time after this and headed for their quarters at the old palace. Sitting in a study that once belonged to Peckinpah Cuckanov, Bomb stirred a pot of minestrone soup over a small fireplace, while Red crumpled the list of actresses and fed it to the fire.

"That's it, buddy. It's game over for us." Bomb said. "We spent our last kopeck on that flea-infested theater, and still no girl to pretend to be Agatha."

"We'll find her, buddy. She's out there somewhere, right under our beaks." Red took out a miniature-sized party cannon from his bag. "One look at this party cannon, and the Empress will think we have the real Agatha. And before she catches on, we'll be off spending the 10 million reward."

* * *

After asking for directions, Aggie and Chuck had finally found their way to the old palace. It was an eerie place. Once having been grande and majestic, it was now dark, run-down and covered in non-shoveled winter.

As the two friends made their way to the main entrance, Aggie just walked and stared at the place that she begin to recall to her memories, but she still can't remember. The main entrance, like nearly every other door and window on the building, were sealed up with boards, and the wall that she was facing was riddled with old bullet-holes. When Chuck saw the door that was boarded, he can still see inside between holes.

"Classy joint!" Chuck gasped as he run so fast, he can slip through holes of the boarded door and goes inside

Aggie gasped in terrified that her friend can enter inside, thinking it was trespassing. She looked for Chuck through the holes to find him. "Chuck! Chuck? Chuck, where are you, you crazy canary?!"

Aggie has no choice, but to go after Chuck, so she grabbed the boards before her, trying to rip them down. Fortunately, the boards were rotten and soon gave in. She fell back, about half a dozen boards lying atop of her.

The noise that Aggie made can be heard from inside, where Red and Bomb were having dinner.

"Did you hear something?" Red asked.

"No." Bomb responded as he continued eating his food.

The interior of the palace was as cold as the outside, and a lot darker. Old cobwebs and dust had made it their home since the departure of its last owners. As Aggie walked through the long corridors, Chuck followed her, an unfamiliar feeling had started to come over her. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but it almost felt like… some sort of familiarity, like something from a forgotten dream that suddenly made itself reminded of during the day.

They made it to a living room where thing are now covered in web. Aggie looked at the plate, and it's like she remembered something, but she ignored it.

When, Aggie wondered around, chuck became scared at this place already.

"This place. It's... It's like a memory from a dream." Aggie scanned the room and things as she started to sing when she and Chuck entered the ballroom.

 _Dancing birds, colored wings.  
These I almost remember.  
And a song someone sings,  
once upon a December._

 _Someone holds me safe and warm,_  
 _Eagles soar through a silver-storm._  
 _Figures dancing gracefully,  
across my memory._

Suddenly, ghost-like figures of birds danced from the paintings, and slowly landed on the floor. Aggie joined with the dancers on the floor, while Chuck stayed behind, watching Aggie danced as he think she might be crazy. Then, the ghost or Peckinpah, Silver, Stella, Poppy, Dahlia, and Luca appeared from their family portrait.  
 _  
Someone holds me safe and warm,  
Chefs can cook a crispy worm  
Figures dancing gracefully,  
across my memory._

 _Far away, long ago,_  
 _glowing as dim as an ember._  
 _Things my heart used to know,_  
 _things it yearns to remember._

 _And a song someone sings,  
once upon a December.  
_  
"Hey! What are you doing here!?" Aggie flinched as her imagination disappeared and looked up as they heard the loud voice coming from just above them.

Up on a loft nearby they spotted two figures; one was a red cardinal bird, and the other was a black Greater Antillean Bullfinch. Aggie quickly got up and ran towards Chuck to made a run for it. Chuck stood up to fetch up his friend to help her run.

"HEY! Wait, hold on a minute. Stop!" The red bird cried out and chased after the white feathery bird and the yellow bird while the black bird rushed after him.

Aggie and Chuck ran as fast as their little feet could carry until they was caught in a dead end near a giant family portrait. They were now cornered and had nowhere to go as Red caught up to the two birds.

"Now, how did you get in… Here?" Red suddenly froze as he got a good look at the intruder in front of him. It was a young female white bird with a canary next to her. The two looked cautiously at him.

They were standing in front of a large painting that depicted the entire Cuckanov family, right next to the depiction of the young Agatha at its bottom. Red's eyes darted back and forth between the child-white bird on the painting and white bird that was standing in front of him. There was an extra-ordinary resemblance between the two: the white, crowded, fuzzy feathers, their slender figures, the long black hair and even the distinct dark brown eyes.

A sly smile spread across Red's face, and by the time Bomb caught up with him, panted. "Excuse me, child…"

"Bomb, do you see what I see?" Red asked his partner.

Bomb stared at the white bird, then looked at the painting of the young white bird. He gasped when he sees the resemblance. "Oooooh yes… Yes!"

Aggie noticed how the birds stared at her, which made her feel a little uncomfortable. "Are you Red?" She asked, now remembering Edward and Eva's words.

"Perhaps." Red said as he walked up to her. "It depends on who's looking for him."

"My name is Aggie, and this is Chuck." Aggie introduced herself and Chuck to Red "We need travel papers. They say you're the bird to see, even though I can't tell you who said that."

Red had started to walk around her, observing her features in a thought-full manner.

Aggie didn't like it and turned around to face him. "Hey, why are you circling me? What kind of bird are you? Are you a vulture or a hawk or something?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, Aggey." Red apologized.

"It's Aggie." She corrected him

"Aggie." He tried to memorize. "It's just that you looked a lot like…" Red was about to say she looks like Agatha in the portrait. "Never mind. Now, you said something about travel papers?"

"Yes. We want to go to Tropigal Paradise."

"You want to go to Tropigal Paradise?!" Red, suddenly, said with badly concealed joy in his voice.

From behind the red and white bird, Chuck noticed Bomb standing beside him. "Hi, my name is Chuck." Chuck extended his hand to Bomb.

"Hi, I'm Bomb. Great to meet you." Bomb smiled.

"Why your name is Bomb?" The canary asked.

"Well, sometimes when I get upset, I... have been known to... blow up." The black bird explained

"So, like uh. Like what? Like you get mad, you mean." Chuck asked as he shakes his tail in excitement.

"Well, No I literally blow up, okay. I explode like a bomb. Hence the name." He smiled

"Do it!" Chuck shouted excitingly.

"No can do. I just went boom-boom before these birds are going to have a talk-fight." Bomb whispered, referring to Red and Aggie.

"Like a love quarrel." Chuck chuckled.

"HEY!" Red and Aggie shouted as Chuck and Bomb snickered.

After shouting at the two birds, Red turned to Aggie, and asked "Now, let me ask you something... Aggie, was it? There's a last name that goes with that?"

Aggie blinked, and looked down in a reluctant fashion. "Well, actually… This is gonna sound weird, but I don't know my last name. I was found all by myself when I was eight years old."

"And before that? Before you were eight?"

"I know it's strange, but I don't remember. I have very few memories of my past."

"Well that's… Perfect." The red bird mumbled in a low voice.

Aggie started to stare at the pendant around her neck, as she had a tendency to do when her past was brought up. "I do have one clue, however. And that is Tropigal Paradise. Right. So can you two help me or not?"

Red turned to Bomb to ask for the tickets. Bomb took four tickets from his feathers, and hand it to Red. Then, Red turned to Aggie. "Sure would like to. In fact, oddly enough, we're going to Tropigal Paradise ourselves. And I've got four..." He realized that he holds four tickets, so he throws the other one away. "I've got three tickets here. Unfortunately, the third one is for her. Agatha" He pointed at the large painting that hung up on the wall.

Aggie followed his finger, and saw that he was pointing towards a very small white bird in the painting, around seven years old and has a short black hair and few crowed white feathers.

"Oh…" Aggie said, as she and Chuck were dragged by Red and Bomb down the corridor

"We are going to reunite the missing grand-duchess with her grandmother." Bomb said with a smile.

"You know, you do kind of look like her." Red, suddenly, said and pointed at her face, which made her blink a few times.

"The same dark brown eyes." Bomb stated. "Czar Peckinpah's smile…"

"Silver's feet." Red said pointing Aggie's feet

"Oh, look. She even has Matilda's feathers." Bomb noticed her feathers.

"She's the same age, has the same physical type…" Red continued.

Aggie chuckled ridiculously and got herself out of the two birds grips. She turned to them, half-amused at their insinuations. "Are you trying to tell me you think that I am Agatha?

Red gave her a serious look. "All I know is that I've seen a thousand girls all over this island, and not one of them looked as much as the grand duchess as much as you do. I mean just look at the portrait!"

He waved a wing towards a different painting at their side. This one was not as large as the previous one, and depicted only two birds. One was a slightly older Agatha, the other an elderly female bird, who radiated with a most regal presence.

Aggie laughed at this. "I knew you were crazy. But now I think you are both mad." She crossed her arms, and walked away.

But the red bird hurried around her and blocked her way. "Why? You don't know what happened to you." He said, and was soon joined by his partner.

"No one knows what happened to her." The black bird stated. "You're looking for family, in Tropigal Paradise."

"… And her only living family is in Tropigal Paradise." Red finished. "Ever thought of the possibility?"

"That I could be royalty?" Aggie asked. She looked up at the painting again as Red, Chuck, and Bomb nodded. "Well, it's kind of hard to think of yourself as a duchess when you're sleeping on a damp floor."

When Chuck realized he was crowded between Red and Aggie, he pushed Red aside for space, and Red fought him back.

"But, sure, every lonely girl would hope she's a princess." Aggie continued, still staring at the painting.

"And somewhere, one little girl is." Bomb sensibly stated. Aggie looked at him, then back to the painting again, her brow furrowed in deep introspection.

"Wish we could help, but the third ticket is for the Grand Duchess Agatha" Red said and suddenly sprinted over to his partner, and started to drag the confused Bomb with him down the corridor. As they were leaving, the red bird called out to Aggie and Chuck over his shoulder. "Good luck!"

As they disappeared around a corner, Aggie and Chuck were left alone. The canary let out an impressed whistle. "Agatha was a lot like you."

Aggie stared at the painting in front of her. She particularly observed the elderly bird next to the famous grand-duchess. At first one would probably guess this was a pretty snooty or strict lady, given the dignified and hardened features that was most befitting of a monarch. But there was something about her eyes, who had the debt of two wells, and how one of her wings lovingly rested on the child next to her, that filled Aggie with a warmth and longing of unclear origins. She didn't know why, but as fidgeted her precious pendant, she felt a strong desire to meet this person.

"Why didn't you tell her about our brilliant plan?" Bomb angrily asked Red.

Red gave him a sly smile. "All she wants to do is go to Tropigal Paradise. Why give away a third of the reward money? "

"I tell you, we're walking away too soon!" The black bird reminded

"Not to worry. I got it all under control." Red calms his friend down. "All right, walk a little slower." He said as the two walk slowly. Then, he started counting. "Three, two, one."

"Red!" They could hear Aggie voice crying. "Red! Wait!"

Bomb looked at Red and shook his head. He couldn't help but to smile. "Right in the feathers of our wings." He muttered.

Red had the time to shoot a cocky grin at his friend before they were re-joined by the white bird and the canary. "Yes?"

"If I don't remember who I am, the who is to say I am not a princess or duchess or whatever she is… Right?" Aggie said with an un-assuming tone and with her arms in an open gesture.

Red nodded. "M-hm. Go on."

"And if I'm not Agatha, the empress will certainly know right away and then it'll just be an honest mistake."

"Yes, but if you are the princess, then you'll finally know who you are and have your family back." Bomb said.

" You know, he's right. Either way, it gets you to Tropigal Paradise. " Red added. Aggie gave the two a wide smile and extended a hand towards.

"Hear that, Chuck? We're going to Tropigal Paradise!" Aggie sad as Chuck cheered

"Uh, no. The canary stays."

"What're you talking about? He goes too."

"No, He's not going."

"I say he goes. We're package-deal."

"I only have three tickets."

"Au contraire Red, I believe we have four." Bomb's deep voice suddenly bellowed as he shows four tickets in his hand, much to Red's frustration.

"Agatha?" Ross whispered in disbelief, as he hid behind a pillar a couple of meters away. "You have just one problem there, fellah. Agatha's dead. All the Cuckanovs are dead. They're dead." He continued to rant these reassurances in his head for quite a while, not noticing how the relic that hung around his neck had started to glow and emit small gusts of green, ethereal smoke. "Am I right or am I ri-" His train of thought was suddenly cut off as he noticed how a glowing green demonic-looking pig had seated itself upon his shoulder, hissing into his ear. He yelped in surprise and jumped back, which made the demon pig burst into smoke again. Ross looked down at the relic, finally noticing a familiar glow within it. "Oh, come on. Am I supposed to believe that thing woke up after all these years just because some guy claims she's a Cuckanov?" As a response to his comment, another puff of green made itself out of the pig-head, taking the form of yet another, snarling pig-creature with wings.

"Okay, okay! I get the message, enough with all that spooky stuff…" Ross said with an annoyed tone, burst his lips and blew the apparition away from his face. He twisted and turned the object in his paws, muttering to himself. " If that thing's come back to life, it must mean Agatha's alive." Ross stealth-fully looked around the pillar again, noticing how the foursome of characters had started to move away from the dance floor. His eyes followed the white bird that was currently arguing with the red bird in the front.

As he said this, something very unusual happened. The pig-head of the occult relic opened its mouth widely and sprayed out a big green cloud that started to encompass him completely. As the smoke cleared in the now completely abandoned palace, Ross was gone!

* * *

Far beyond the reach of any living animal or sunlight, in a place of shadow and oblivion, the smoked cleared away from Ross. He coughed. "What in the-" He looked around, and found himself in a place that was completely unfamiliar to him. It was a dark and damp place, composed completely of stone, with bones of many different animals decorating the ceiling above him, and the floor and the walls practically crawling with insects.

Ross has just gotten himself transported to limbo, where the decaying Leonard notices the sudden intrusion.

"Who dares to intrude on my solitude!? GET OUT!" Leonard was about to strangle Ross, until he recognizes him. "Ross, is that you?"

Ross looks surprised as he recognizes his former master. "Master? You're alive?!"

"In a manner of speaking." Leonard blinks, one of his eyeballs suddenly pops out and lands in Ross open hands, he looks at it with a disgust look.

"You got that right." Ross said as Leonard took his eyeball, and placed it right where it came from.

"Something's happened. I knew it! I could sense the darkness stirring." Leonard said.

I'm not surprised, because I saw her. Agatha." Ross announced

"Agatha? Alive?" Leonard's mouth drops, literally, at this revelation.

"Sir, your mouth, it's…"

"That Cuckanov brat!" Leonard reaches his hands down and pulls his mouth back in its place with a cracking sound. "That explains why I'm stuck here in limbo! My curse is not complete!" Upset, Leonard throws an arm around, which gets loose and hits Ross right in the face to his great discomfort.

Leonard gives of a depressed scream, looks at the stump where his arm was until most recently. "Look at me. I am falling apart. I'm a wreck!"

Ross carried Leonard's hand to return to him. "Actually, considering how long you've been dead, you look pretty good."

Leonard looks at Ross, suddenly with a comedic gratitude in his face. "Really?"

"Sir, is this the face of a pig who would lie to you?" Ross gave a cute smile. "Come on, for a minute there, you had your old spark back!"

"If only I hadn't lost the gift from the dark forces. The key to my powers." Leonard remember his reliquary.

"What? You mean this reliquary?" Ross showed the reliquary to his master.

Leonard gets a shocked and happy expression. "Where did you get THAT?!"

"Well, I found it." The small pig said.

Leonared eagerly snatches the relic from Ross "GIVE IT TO ME!"

"Okay, okay. Don't get so grabby." Ross said.

Leonard looks closely at the relic, which glows stronger than ever, a devilish smile extending on his face. "My old friend… together again..." He lifts the relic up high, shocks of green sparking out of it. "Now my dark purpose will be fulfilled, and the last of the Cuckanovs will DIE!"

 **Leonard:** _In the dark of the night, I was tossing and turning  
And the nightmare I had was as bad as can be  
It scared me out of my wits  
A corpse falling to bits  
Then I opened my eyes and the nightmare was me_

 _I was once the most mystical pig in Bird Island  
When the Royals betrayed me, they made a mistake  
My curse made each of them pay  
But one little girl got away  
Little Aggie, beware, Leonard's awake_

 **Creatures** : _In the dark of the night, evil will find her  
In the dark of the night, just before dawn_

 **Leonard:** _Revenge will be sweet_

 **All:** _When the curse is complete_

 **Creatures:** _In the dark of the night_

 **Leonard:** _She'll be gone  
I can feel that my powers are slowly returning  
Tie my sash and a dash of cologne for that smell  
As the pieces fall into place  
I'll see her crawl into place  
So long, Aggie, your grace, farewell_

 **Creatures:** _In the dark of the night, terror will strike her_

 **Leonard:** _Terror's the least I can do_

 **Creatures:** _In the dark of the night, evil will brew_

 **Leonard** _ **:**_ _Soon she will feel that her nightmares are real_

 **All:** _In the dark of the night_

 **Leonard:** _She'll be through_

 **Creatures:** _In the dark of the night, evil will find her... (Find her)  
In the dark of the night, terror comes true... (Doom her)_

 **Leonard:** _My dear, here's a sign_

 **All:** _It's the end of the line_

 **Creatures:** _In the dark of the night  
In the dark of the night_

 **Leonard:** _Come, my minions, rise for your master  
Let your evil shine_

 **Creatures:** _In the dark of the night  
In the dark of the night_

 **Leonard:** _Find her now Yes, fly ever faster_

 **Creatures:** _In the dark of the night  
In the dark of the night  
in the dark of the night_

 **Leonard:** _She'll be mine_

A swarm of demonic little pigs flies out of the relic, flying beyond the limitations of limbo and up into the physical world.

* * *

 **I don't owe anything. I repeat, I don't owe anything, not even the script or the lyrics.**

 **This is just only a parody. An Angry Birds version of the movie, _Anastasia_.**

 **I hope you enjoyed it :-)**


	4. Train trouble

With the help of Red and Bomb, the colorful foursome of birds made it on to the train to Piglantis without a hitch. About 45 minutes later they were on their way, leaving the tall buildings of St Petersbird behind them.

They had seated themselves in a fairly large car that easily fitted six birds, so comfort and space was not a problem.

"I don't know what happened back when I was a kid. I was doing the poses. I was feeling all zen. My mom was digging it! Then I lost my grip on it." Said Bomb, who was telling his childhood story to Chuck about his uncontrolling explosion. "I let it slipped and it just squeaked out."

Chuck giggled and Aggie smiled on the opposite seat. The door to the cart suddenly opened, and in came Red, who carried a few heavy bags, and placed them under the seat. He made his way to the seat at the window and was on his way to sit down, but he didn't noticed that was already sit on Red's seat.

"Ahem!" Chuck fake cleared his throat. "Am I invisible or something?!"

The red bird huffed and rolled his eyes as he moved to sit down in a free seat next to Aggie, who was sitting in a slouchy manner while looking at her pendant.

Red shot her an annoyed look. "Would you stop fiddling with that? And sit up straight, you're a grand duchess, remember?"

Aggie looked annoyed and crossed her arms. "How would you know what grand duchesses do or don't do?" She asked.

"I make it my business to know." Red answered. "Look, Ags, I'm just trying to help."

Aggie raised her eyebrows, and glared at Red. "Mr. Red, do you really think I'm royalty?"

"Yep." He said quickly.

"And you wanna be helpful to me?"

"Sure thing!"

Aggie turned to Red, and spoke to him with a noticeable edge in her voice. "Then would you just stop bossing me around?!"

When Aggie faced away from Red, he nearly let out his anger, until he took a deep breath, and turned his face away from her. Chuck and Bomb laughed at this scene.

"She certainly has a mind of her own!" Bomb said.

"Yeah, I hate that in a woman." Red muttered.

Aggie glanced at Red with a self-righteous look and stuck her tongue out.

Bomb chuckled as he took out a paper, and made a tally about Red and Aggie's score; Red got 3, while Aggie got 30.

* * *

Few minutes later, Red and Aggie are now alone in the cart as Aggie read a book about Tropigal paradise.

"Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot." Red started.

She still didn't look over the book, which made Red feel a little annoyed. Then she answered. "I think we did too, but I appreciate your apology."

Red frowned and gave off a small snort. "Apology? Who said anything about an apology? I was just-"

Suddenly, Aggie put down the book down and looked at Red. Her face was neutral, but her were sternly un-amused. "Would you please not talk anymore? It's just gonna upset me."

Red crossed his arms and looked at his side. "Fine, I'll be quiet if you will."

"Alright!" Aggie put the book down at her side and crossed her arms too. "I'll be quiet too."

"Fine." Red said.

"Fine." Aggie said too.

With that they sat in their seats, not making a sound for about 5 whole minutes. However, as much as Aggie disliked this Red-bird, this quiet tension between them was suffocating.

"You think you're gonna miss it?" Aggie said while looking out the window.

"What? Your talking?" Red asked ironically and smiled at her.

Aggie sighed and shook her head. "No. I meant Bird Island."

With that question, Red's smile disappeared. He looked down and grabbed his left wrist. "Nope."

"But it was your home…" She said, though now her voice was a little uncertain.

 _Red was hatched from an egg without parents, and born with anger issues. Ever since he was just a hatchling, he was an orphan, and doesn't have friends at all._

" _Eyebrow!"_

" _Weirdo!"_

" _Loser!"_

"No." Red said without a trace of his ordinary irony or confidence. It was a plain and straight statement devoid of emotion.

Aggie widened her eyes and looked at the red bird in front of her. Did she say something wrong? "What?"

"Nothing. Look, Bird Island? It was a place I once lived in, end of story." He said, still with that emotionless, dead tone that didn't seem like him at all as he still remembered his bad memories when he was a child.

Aggie didn't like it, as the tension in the cart seemed to have turned for the worse as this subject had come up. "… Then you must be planning on making Tropigal Paradise your new home?" She asked, hoping it would break the tension.

Red groaned in frustration as a response to this, and looked at Aggie, his ordinary sleepy look having returned. "What is it with you and homes? Is every orphan like this or what?" He asked.

This made Aggie stand up and give Red a furious look. "Well for one thing, it's something every normal person wants!" She cried out and pointed at Red, who still looked at her with skepticism. "And for another thing… Well, you know… Oh just forget it!"

Suddenly, the door opened, and the white and red birds turned their heads to see Chuck and Bomb, who looked at them with confused looks. Aggie exhaled and walked past them. "Oh, thank goodness it's you! Would you please deal with him?!"

"What did you do now?" Bomb asked Red accursedly as he walked in.

Red looked surprised at the way his so-called friend seemed to take Aggie's side in this. "Me?! She started it!" He said and pointed at Aggie.

"Bah!" Was her only response to this as she stomped out of the cart and slammed the door shut behind her.

Now left in the cart with a pouted look, Red could feel a gaze from below and looked down.

"I don't know about you, Red, but I think you kind of having an attraction to her." Bomb started.

"Attraction?! On that crazy fuzzy-feathered bird?! Have you lost your mind?!" He then stomped out of the cart in the same manner as Aggie had, and disappeared out the sight of both the black and yellow bird.

* * *

Time passed slowly as the train moved further into the Bird Island wilderness, with mountains and trees surrounding it. The sun had gone down by then, and Red and Bomb's two companions had made some make-shift beds with some blankets and turned in for the day. Red, whose mood had improved since his little banter with the white bird, sat a few seats away from the sleeping Aggie. Because of her petite form, she barely needed two seats, while Chuck had his own seat on the opposite side near the window.

Suddenly the door to the cart opened. Red looked up to see Bomb with a wild expression on his face and his fake pass-port in his right hand.

"You know what I hate about this government?" Bomb said while panting. "EVERYTHING HAS TO BE RED!"

"Red? That was my color." Red gasped as Bomb opened his fake pass-port and held it in front of Red. Besides containing a photograph with a smiling Bomb, it had all the necessary information in deep blue writing.

Bomb pointed at these with a finger. "The letters! They must've changed the color of them from blue to red sometime this month. If the ticket-collector gets one good look at these, we will off with our heads first!"

This made Red stand up. He wasted no time, and started to pack up their collective belongings "How could you miss that?!"

"Hey, less pointing fingers, more moving to baggage-cart!" The black bird said while he looked out of their door, keeping a look-out for the dreaded ticket-collector. "They'll get there too eventually. I suggest we get off the train as soon as possible."

"Ugh, what's going on?" Chuck interrupted when he heard the commotion while looking at the window.

"Change of plans Chuck, we need to move and do so quickly." Bomb said without looking back.

"Why? Why do we… What in the…" Chuck's eyes suddenly went to the window. Green lights had started to fly past in the darkness outside. On a closer inspection, one could see that his light had tiny fat arms, fat legs and bat wings. One of them passed the window very closely, giving the canary a proper look at it up close. It was a pig-like creature, with bat wings. Then, it gives Chuck an ugly insulted face, making him jumped in frighten. "Okay, maybe I'll just go." Then, he ran out of the cart.

Red had packed everything, and then leaned over Aggie, putting a wing on her arm in order to wake her up. "Hey, Aggie…"

SMACK!

Aggie's arm had shot up with a clenched fist at its end and socked the red bird right in the beak.

"YAOW!" Red recoiled, holding his beak and giving of a yelp of pain.

Aggie sat up, confused and with a worried look. "Oh! I'm so sorry, I thought you were…" Then she got a good look at Red, who was still groaning. She put a hand on her beak, hiding a smile and holding back a giggle. "Oh, it is you. I suppose that's okay then."

The red bird was not as amused, and with a luggage under one wing, he extended his next and pulled up Aggie. "Come on, we need to go."

The foursome made their way out in the corridor.

"You broke my beak!" Red muttered as they made their way down the corridor.

"You boys are such babies…!" Aggie said in response.

The birds arrived in the dark interior of the baggage-cart. It was considerably colder than any other cart, to the point where their exhales could be seen as puffs of white smoke.

"Oh yes, this'll do nicely." Red said, and he put down the luggage to his side.

"We'll freeze in here." Bomb noted as he put his handbag down. His teeth chattered while he did so

"We'll thaw out when we reach the next station." Red said to his partner.

"Why did you take us to the baggage-cart?" Aggie asked. "Is there something wrong with our papers?"

"Of course not your grace, it's just that I… I hate to see you forced to mingle with all those commoners." Red said with a reassuring smile and put his arm around Bomb, who mimicked his smile as best as he could. However, it just looked like a stiff grimace. Aggie cocked an eyebrow in their direction. She walked up to Red, seizing him with a stern look that probably would've made his mother proud.

"Uh… guys?" Chuck noticed something glowing green under a door.

Suddenly, the entire cart violently jerked forward, which made most of them fall on their backs, and most of the luggage around them to fall all over them.

"What was that?!" Red asked.

"I don't know…" Bomb said and ran to the door to the next cart. As he opened it, he saw with to his great horror how the rest of the train had been disconnected from them, and was slowing down further back the track. "… But there goes the dining cart!"

Red was lying on his back… with Aggie lying on top of him in a suggestive position. They looked straight into each others' eyes with awkward looks in their faces.

Bomb put his hand on Red's head and cleared his throat in a loud manner. "Would you two get up? This is hardly the time or the place!"

This seemed to have the wished for effect, as the two birds snapped back to reality.

Aggie quickly jumped up. "Would you get off me?!"

Red quickly got up, shooting the white bird an annoyed look. "I was trying to, you royal pain!"

"Uh, guys." Chuck said. "I think the engine is on fire, right now!" He pointed at the round window of the door, of which an ominous red glow came. His three friends quickly hurried over and opened the door.

"Wait here, I'll check it out!" Aggie said, and started to claim over the latter of the next cart to their great surprise.

"What? Where are you…?" Red began, but Aggie was gone before he could finish.  
She climbed over the cart full of coal, making her way towards the front of the train, protecting her eyes against flying sparks that came from ahead.

She climbed down into the conductor's cabin, only to find it abandoned, and met an intensive heat from the engine. There was no way she could cool all this down! She quickly climbed back.

"We're going way too fast! Too fast that my speed can take." Chuck cried out.

"Nobody is driving this thing!" Aggie said, and made her way through her friends and got the side door to the carts side, trying her best to slide it open. "We have to jump!" she hurried over and helped, and with that they got the side open. Unfortunately enough, there was no ground at the side of the tracks, as it was running on a dangerously high mountainside at the moment.

"Well, ladies first." Red said in an ironic tone.

"Age before beauty." Aggie fought back as she reminded him his and her ages.

"Can you both stop it?" Bomb yelled "We'll have to unlock this cart."

Aggie rushed to the other side of the cart, looking for the link that connected it to the next one, only to find it had melted together. "Are you kidding me? Hey, I need a wrench or a hammer right now!" She yelled backwards. Her friends looked around frenetically, and Bomb eventually found a small hammer that he handed to Aggie. However, after a few good thwacks in the iron, it broke in half, only making dent she could stick her thumb into. Aggie groaned and threw the broken hammer over her shoulder. "Come on! I need something a little heavier than this!"

"Will this do?" Red asked as he came over, holding a TNT-stick with a lit fuse in his hand.

Aggie quickly took it and push it into the dent-hole in the link."More than enough. NOW MOVE!"

The company all rushed behind a large wooden crate on the other side of the cart. They all held their wings over their ears, but not before Red teasingly yelled a half-way impressed question. "What did they teach you at that orphanage?"

KA-BOOM!

The train shook from the explosion, and smoke and fragments of broken wood rained down on them. When it stopped they looked over the crate. The dynamite had worked; they were now separated from the train which was running a couple of meters ahead with its chimney smoking.

"Somebody pull the break!" Red cried out.

Bomb was on it, rushing over the break-lever at the other side. He pulled it as hard as he could, and landed straight on his back as got came loose with a metallic twang. "I can't, it's out!" He said as he got up.

Red looked out of the cart ahead. In the distance, he could see a bridge going over the canyon. He smiled and looked back at them. "Doesn't matter! We have plenty of tracks, we'll just wait till the cart slows down. "

Suddenly, the birds seemed to experience an earthquake. The cart, and apparently the surrounding mountains, shook. It seems that the flying green pigs broke the bridge of the train.

They gasped in horror when they got up and saw the bridge was broken, then Aggie smirked at Red. "You were saying?"

Red leant down, taking up a heavy set of chains and started to drag it to the open doorway. "I got an idea, Bomb, give me a hand!"

Bomb tried to help Red, but because of the movement of a moving cart, he stumbled down on Chuck as the yellow bird tried to get off under Bomb, and breathe for air.

Aggie ran up behind Red, taking another end of the heavy chain in her paws. Red shot her a bothered glance and said "Not you!"

"Bomb is a little busy!" Aggie said

Red rolled his eyes as the two pulled the chains towards the back of the cart. Red hooked the chain under the cart, but his wings are slipping, almost causing him to fall. Fortunately enough, Aggie was quick enough to grab his hand, and pulled him in.

"If we make it out of this, remind me to thank you." Red said and stood up. "NOW BRACE YOURSELVES!"

They throw the chains, and eventually got caught somewhere along the track, breaking down the speed of the cart considerably and making them all fly forward.

As the four birds grabbed their luggages, they stood on the edge of the train, and Aggie said "Well, I guess this is our stop."

They, now, jumped off the cart, and landed safely on the snow.

Just a small distance before the broken bridge, the front of the train and the cart where they ride on came charging down into the depths below, crashing and exploding with a large bang that echoed across the valley around them.

"I hate trains. Remind me to never get on one the train!" Red said to his friends, and shook his head.

* * *

Seething, Leonard watches the following through the reliquary. He screamed in agony as he squeezed his own neck.

It's a good thing, Ross was there to calm him down. "Wow, hey take it easy there. You know, sir, really you should watch your blood pressure. My brother, Joel, just keeled over one day. Stress. It's a killer sir. And he's vegetarian. He never eats eggs."

"HOW COULD THEY LET HER ESCAPE?!" Leonard yelled in distress.

"Ah, you're right. It's very upsetting sir. I guess this reliquary's broken." Ross tosses the reliquary over his shoulder. It flies through the air.

Leonard's eyes go wide in terror as he leaps to catch it.

As he skids across the floor he flings his own hand ahead. The hand lands under the reliquary, breaking its fall just in time

"Alright now sir, take it easy there. Just remember what I said to you about stress –" Ross reminded him.

"I sold my soul for this. My life, my very existence depends on it, and you almost destroyed it!" Leonard scolded

"I get it! I get it! 'You break it, you bought it."

"See that you remember"

"Oh, sure, blame the pig. What the heck we're easy targets always hanging ..." The little pig muttered to himself.

Leonard asked. "What are you muttering about?"

Agatha, sir. Just wishing I could do the job for you - Sir, I'd give her an extreme pummeling! Like I'd… I'd kick her butt so hard!"

"Oh, I have something else in mind ... something more enticing, something really cruel ."

* * *

 **I still don't own the script or anything. Maybe sooner or later, I will rewrite this.**

 **Pls review**


	5. How to be royalty

The walk from the train-wreck had not been easy at first, but they have to keep going, leading them further towards their goal. The closer they got, the warmer the weather seemed to get. They were currently trekking across a landscape near a forest. There was no show here, and the clouds had split long enough to give them some rays of sunshine, which revealed a nature that seemed to have prepared itself for spring in advance, blooming wild flowers and all. This had a significant effect on all their moods. Heck, Bomb had even gotten to skipping across the path and mumbling happily to himself, which was a rare sight indeed.

"Willow, my dear, Bomb's on his way!" He said as he picked up flowers on the side of the path and sniffed it with a look of content in his face.

"Who's Willow?" Asked Aggie.

Bomb looked on happily their way. "Who is Willow?! She's a tender little morsel, the blue cup of hot chocolate, and a decadent pastry filled with whipped cream and red and yellow striped design."

Red, who had been a bit up ahead, carrying most of their luggage, suddenly dropped the bags and turned to Bomb with an apprehensive look. "Bomb, buddy, this may not be the time to-"

"Is this a bird or food?" Aggie asked as she and Chuck laughed.

"She is the Empress' artistic second cousin." Bomb exclaimed as he danced ballet and grabbed Chuck as his partner.

"But I thought we were going to see the Empress herself. Why are we going to see her second cousin?" Aggie wondered, then glared at Red. "RED!"

"Well, nobody gets near the Empress without convincing Willow first." Red explained,

"Uh-uh, forget it! NO! Nobody ever told me I had to prove I was the Grand Duchess!" Aggie shouted angrily.

"Look I-" Red tried to explain, by he was cut off.

"Show up, yes. Look nice, fine. But lie?!" Aggie glared again with wings on her hips.

"Hey, you don't know if it's a lie. What if it's true?" Red snapped as he blocked Aggie's way, while she tries to get away from him. "Okay, maybe it's just one more stop on the road to finding out who you are, but I just thought this was something you had to see through to the end no matter what.

"But look at me Mr. Red, I'm not exactly grand duchess material!" Aggie stomped her foot as she stood on the small bridge, leaning on the railing and looking down into a river below. It didn't take long before she heard the approaching sound of steps. She looked to her side to see Bomb approaching, followed by Chuck. As he got close to her, he stretched out his wing towards her, which had a red rose in it.

Aggie looked at Bomb, then at the flower. She accepted it and smelled it. It really did smell pleasantly. Bomb leant on the railing next to her and looked down into water as well. "Tell me white lady, what do you see?"

He was referring to the water, which was as clear as crystal and reflected them both. The white-feathered in the water frowned. "I see a fuzzy-feathered white bird with no informations about her past and future." She said and dropped the rose in the water, which cause several rings to appear around it.

Bomb's mirror image on the other hand smiled. He stretched out a wing and gently placed it under Aggie's chin, turning her face to look at him. "I see a brave and hyperactive young bird, who on a number of occasions has shown a regal command equal to any royal in the world. And I have known my fair share of royalty."

Aggie's eyes widened. She can't believe what Bomb had said, and he said about what he saw about her

A few seconds later, Red joined them. "So… Are you ready to become Grand Duchess Agatha?" He said as casually as he could to Aggie.

Aggie is still annoyed at Red for not being honest with her. Bomb and Chuck growled at him

"What?" Red said in a confused manner.

"There's nothing left for you back there, Aggie." Bomb said as he pointed out back in Bird Island. "Everything, is in Tropigal Paradise."

Aggie looked down in deep thought. Then she look up, a motivated smile spreading across her face. "Okay then, gentlebirds. Where do we start?" She said.

Chuck, Bomb, and Red looked happily at her.

The Greater Antillean Bullfinch stepped forward, put his wing on her shoulder and started to detail her life-story. "Well, girl, let's start from where you really came from…"

* * *

The journey from that clearing to the harbor was an eventful one. Though not as dangerous as their train-ride, Aggie found herself constantly occupied with being taught her supposed life story, including her early years as a Grand Duchess and her likes and dislikes as a child. She also found out about her enormous family, which included her parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, 3 older sisters, 1 younger brother, numerous uncles, aunts and finally several distant relations, each with pretty colorful backstories that she had to memorize.

But history and trivia wasn't the only thing she got to learn as they all traveled towards Piglantis, either by walking, hitchhiking or taking a bus. She was also taught by all three of her companions how to walk, talk and even eat as someone from the upper class of life.

As a student, Aggie was unusually adaptable. For a tomboyish bird that was of humble working-class origin, she learned these things with considerable ease. The proper manners and ceremonial ways came easy to her, as well as most of the family-members history and her connection to them.

However, it was not all a cake-walk. She had trouble with Algerian writing, and fancy things like remembering which fork or knife to use depending on your meal as taught out by Red was as hard to her as it was to anyone.

While there were frustrating times, where her temper won out any thirst of knowledge, she soon recovered her good spirits and would ask to try again.

She also had to learn something she had never had a chance to learn while in the orphanage; to ride a two-wheel bicycle. This turned out to be Chuck's specialty, as he and Aggie not being too different in speed made learning her easier.

As for Red, he had taken Bomb's words to heart and tried to be nicer to Aggie and Chuck, who in response was polite to him as well.

While the canary still was suspicious of his new "best friends", he was considerably softer to his presence than in the beginning. He was much fonder of Bomb, who seemed fond of him as well. Red suspected that this was because they are both nuts.

As for Aggie, she listened closely to what Red tried to teach her every time it was their session. While there certainly were times where the patience between them was turning thin, they were getting along better, to the point where the fuzzy-feathered bird no longer took offense to the eyebrowed bird's sarcastic and almost harsh words.

They finally reached Piglantis by bus, and it didn't take them long before locating the harbor and the ship which would bring to the other side of the world. It was a large and fairly fresh boat with its name, the Roviosha, painted on the side.

Waiting in front of the ramp leading up to it was Aggie and Chuck. Red and Bomb had gone off to make some last-minute purchases before they left.

"I've never seen the sea before. It looks cool." Aggie said as she look out towards said ocean, whose marine-blue waves splashed against the shore and exploded into white foam of bubbles. A gentle breeze was coming their way, sending a scent of salt and seaweed.

"Ha! I've been running around Bird Island, and enjoying playing at the beach." Chuck smirked as he crossed his arms

"Can't be as rocky as the train, eh?" Aggie said teasingly, and they both laughed.

They were soon joined by Red and Bomb who was carrying with them even more large boxes of food and clothes.

"Now let's get moving, I think they're about to set off anytime now." Red yelled at the two birds.

Chuck squealed in excitement as he zoomed forward, and made it to the boat without hitting anyone."

"Goodbye and fare-thee-well, Bird Island!" Aggie shouted happily before facing away to get on board.

* * *

Well, this is chapter 5. I hope you enjoyed it. Sorry it take so long. I was busy for other stories and school.


	6. Dreams mixed with Nightmares

As the Roviosha made it's voyage further out to sea, Aggie and Chuck got busy looking through their newly purchased clothes that were bought by Red and Bomb. While they weren't exactly dresses of grandiose quality, they were a lot finer than their initial articles of clothing.

"Ugh, why do we need clothes?" Aggie scoffed. "We're birds. Unlike those pigs, they're naked. No feathers."

"Maybe we want to look fabulous in Tropigal Paradise." Chuck said. "Besides, I want to look handsome in front of the empress."

Just then, Red interrupted the two friends with a sound of his clearing throat.

"Oh, hi Red." The canary waved his hand as Aggie turned around to look at the red bird, who was holding a white dress.

"Here. I bought you a dress." He smiled.

"Come on, Red. We're birds. I don't need to wear a dress." Aggie said.

"Okay, if you wear this dress, I'll wear a bow-tie, so we're even. Come on. Just put it on." He said and handed over the whole thing to Aggie as he turned around and left the room, probably going back to deck again.

Chuck looked at Aggie, who was looking over her oversized dress. She had it pressed against her body and waved it around, making the fabric flow around her.

"You know, that dress really fits you." He said.

"Really?" Aggie asked.

"Of course. You better wear that. I'll leave the room for you." He said as he left Aggie alone in the room for her to where the white dress.

When she looked at her dress one more time, she has an idea of sewing it to make it perfect of her size.

* * *

Few minutes later, at the deck, Chuck joins with Red and Bomb, who wear playing chess. Red also wears a maroon bow-tie as his promise to Aggie.

"Hey guys!" Aggie greeted them.

The three boys turned around in their chairs to see Aggie. The white dress now gracefully fit over her body, pronouncing her femininity in a manner that her former rags had failed to do. Coupled with a happy smile on her beak, she looked darn pretty.

Red gaped as he saw the now very womanly white bird, and Bomb rose up and spoke with an admiring tone in his voice.

"Gorgeous! Absolutely gorgeous!"

Aggie smile widened and she shyly looked down. Bomb walked over, carefully holds Aggie's hand, and took her forward. "And now you are you're dressed for a  
ball, you will learn to dance for one as well. Red?" He looked over at the red bird in question, who seemed to snap out of staring at Aggie and met his look.

"But I'm not very good at it." Red tried to excuse himself, but Bomb dragged him in.

He placed a hand in Aggie's hand, and the other on her back. The two birds hadn't been this close to each other before and the intimacy made the two nervous.

"There we go. And, one-two-three, one-two-three…" Bomb began and he and Chuck watched as Aggie and Red engaged in a waltz that began rather stiffly, but became smoother after a few minutes.

"That dress is really good-looking." Red said, trying to make the situation feel less awkward.

"Do you think so?" Aggie asked as she looked into Red's eyes, which had gone from their usual, carefree half-sidedness to something that seemed more awake and apprehensive.

"Yes. I mean, it looked nice on the hanger, but it looks even better on you, especially when you sew it to fit your size. You should wear it." He stuttered.

"I am wearing it." She said matter-of-factly while giving him an appreciative smile.

"Ah well of course, I was just, um, trying to give you a…"

"Compliment?"

"Of course… Yes."

While the two danced with an increasing flow and grace, they were being watched by the canary and greater Antillean Bullfinch, who by now had stopped giving them directions and simply enjoyed seeing the two practice on their own.

"They're really getting into it, aren't they?" Bomb said, chuckling slightly under his breath.

"Yeah… I know right." Chuck chuckled. "Those two are so cute tigether."

"I'm feeling dizzy." Aggie said in a quiet voice

"Kind of light-headed?" Red asked in a low voice.

"Yep."

"Me too. Probably from all the spinning… Maybe we should stop?"

"We have stopped."

Red snapped out of it, for they had in fact stopped and were now looking deeply into each other's eyes, Aggie's dark-brown gaze meeting Red's light-brown ones. A craving feeling in the pit of Red's stomach began to bubble furiously, and Aggie's heart seemed to have gone into high-gear.

"Aggie?" Red whispered, his head beginning to lean towards her.

"Yes?" Aggie whispered back, her head reaching upward and her eyes closing expectantly.

When their beaks were a few centimeters away from meeting, Red stopped and guilt-ridden look flashing across his eyes. Then he gently let go of Aggie and spoke with a neutral voice.

"You're doing fine."

Aggie opened her eyes and blinked in surprise. She recognized this. Red's voice and the look on his face was distant and melancholy, exactly like that time on the train. Red gave off a meek smile and then passed by her, walking back to their room under deck. Aggie followed him with a confused look, as did Bomb and Chuck on the other hand looked more saddened when Red and Aggie didn't continue the kiss.

* * *

By night on its first day of journey the ship had found itself surrounded by bad weather. The wind blew harshly, and hard rain forced all the passengers retreat into their cabin-rooms below deck. The sizable waves that had started to appear in the ocean also made the ship rock back and forth, to which unaccustomed sea-dwellers had started to find themselves experiencing symptoms of sea-sickness. One of these was none other than the Roviosha's one passenger that was a Greater Antillean Bullfinch.

"Are you okay?" Aggie asked with concern as she heard Bomb wail in agony on the top-bunk of their room's nest.

"Just fine." Bomb answered and sat up. His eyes were drooping with queasiness, and moved to stare at Red in an envious fashion, who had already been asleep for an hour. "That lucky little cardinal though… He can sleep through anything!"

Chuck, secretly, took a little peek in Red's bag, and found a miniature-sized pink party cannon.

"Hey, Aggie, take a look at this." He gave the small cannon to Aggie.

Aggie took the cannon, and looked at it more closely, trying to familiarize it.

"Cute party cannon, isn't it?" Bomb smiled.

"Party cannon? Are you sure that's what it is?" Aggie asked.

"What else could it be?"

"Something else, something special… something to do with a secret." Aggie said mysteriously and with a voice that seemed far away. "Is that possible?"

"Anything is possible. You taught Red how to waltz didn't you?" Bomb said as he laid down on his nest, and Chuck just sleep on the floor.

"Sleep well your majesty." Bomb muttered from his nest.

"Sleep well too, boys." Aggie said to Bomb and Chuck, and laid down in her own nest. It had been an eventful day, so it didn't take long before she was sound asleep.

* * *

This was not missed by the bad guys of this story, who through the mystical window of Leonard's magic could see albino bird while she was sleeping.

"There she is, master, sound sleep in her little nest." Mumbled Ross.

"And pleasant dreams to you, Princess." The king pig extended hi hoofed hands around the window, almost caressing the blissfully unaware image of Aggie with a devilish grin. "I'll get inside your mind, where you can't escape me."

It was by midnight that everyone in the cabin had fallen asleep. The storm that encased the ship had reached it's peak and made it rock back and forth in effect, which seemed to cradle our main-characters into an even deeper sleep. Thus, no-one present noticed the green glow that suddenly came from beneath the door to their room. Slipping under it's small gap came an all too familiar, ethereal smoke that carefully soared in and split into thin, snake-like clouds. These moved with lethal purposefulness towards their unsuspecting target, floating over to Aggie's nest and circling her head. She did not wake up, for the forces that had gleefully started to pull the major strings of her unconscious had gotten a hold of some of the bird's locked and shut memories, which made for excellent exploitive material.

 _These were some of the happier, more serene memories of Aggie's forgotten past, which involved bright summer days, blooming fields of flowers and colorful butterflies that seemed to be as big as a bird's head. Aggie's dream-self was dressed in a summer-dress that looked very familiar to the one she had worn, and her hair was tied together in a matching blue bow. She peacefully sat on a patch of grass when she suddenly noticed the presence of a small blue bird boy, hardly four years old, who came walking down a path nearby. He greeted her with a warm smile._

 _Aggie felt like she knew this young hatchling, but because of her tranquil state of mind, she didn't bother to try and remember from where._

Back in the real world, the still sleeping Aggie arose from her nest. The covers slipped down on the floor as she started to walk across the room. Her steps were unsteady, because the ship was still rocking. She opened the door, but on her way out she nearly tripped

Chuck, who had awoken from the sound of the door opening, looked up and blinked in confusion at Aggie, who had regained her footing and stood up.

"Aggie? Where are you going?" He asked.

Aggie didn't answer, and instead went out into the corridor without even bothering to close the door after herself.

Chuck opened the door and spotted his friend as Aggie opened the door onto deck, and went out into the raging storm. He realized he can't save Aggie himself so he ran into the sleeping Red.

"Red, wake up! Red!" Chuck tried to shake him awake.

 _At Aggie's dream again_

 _"Come on!" Called the little blue hatchling as he up on a fallen tree, and playfully walked on it like it was a tightrope. Dream-Aggie quickly followed his example and walked right behind him, trying to keep her balance. Usually she was really good at this, but now it seemed unusually difficult._

This was because in real life she was currently walking up the set of stairs that led up onto the deck of the Roviosha, and dangerously swung back and for each step that she took.

Back at the room, Chuck kept shaking Red to wake him up. "Red! Wake up!" Then he has an idea. Chuck leaned on red's ear, and shouted an eagle sound. "SCREEEEEEEEE!"

Red snapped at his sleep, and jumped out of his nest, seeing Chuck in front of him. "Chuck. You crazy canary! What's wrong?"

Chuck turned Red's head, facing Aggie's empty nest.

"Aggie!" Red gasped as he and Chuck ran out of the room. While the two are running, Chuck accidentally slipped on a wet floor, and fell on the floor. Red ran back to help him, but Chuck stopped him.

"Don't worry about me. Just go after Aggie."

Red nodded as proceed running, and climbed up the stairs, leading to the deck.

 _Dream-Aggie followed the hatchling boy up across a great hill, eventually coming near a steep edge. Then, they both saw three birds; a pink, orange, yellow with pink cheeks. They greeted them, and jumped below. Running over there herself, she saw that there was a considerable lengthy drop below that ended in a wide lake._

 _"Hello sparkle!" Called small-sized adult bird with a kind face who waved at her. Aggie waved back and laughed joyfully. She couldn't remember ever having friends with these new strangers, who weren't strangers for her in real life._

 _"Jump in! Jump!" The birds started urged her. When the blue hatchling heard this, he cried excitedly, and jumped over it, making a big splash. Aggie dreamself giggled. She didn't have any swimming clothes, but she had a feeling that it wouldn't matter with these birds, who seemed so very friendly. She looked around and spotted a large rock nearby the edge. This was the perfect moment to show these friendly strangers her diving skills._

Back to the real world, Red climbed the stairs in a fury as he got up on deck and looked around. Roaring wind and rain struck his face as thunderclouds growled and made it difficult for him to see and hear properly.

But he finally saw her, and as he did his heart felt like it sank in fright to the bottom of his stomach. Aggie was standing on top of the protective fence that outlined the edges of the deck, dangerously balancing atop of it with her feet. Red saw that her eyes were closed, and to his great disturbance, how she seemed to smile happily towards the raging ocean below the ship.

He tried to run over to her, but loads of salt-water was launched onto the boat as the waves hit the Roviosha's side and forcefully carried him away to the other end. He managed to grab hold of a rope, and cried out with every ounce of strength that his voice could muster, hoping it would reach the rabbit's ears through the storm.

"AGGIE! AGS, STOP" He managed to get up, and again tried to reach her.

The smile of the sleep-walking Aggie faded. Her brows knitted, and she looked backwards with her eyes still closed.

Curiously trying to locate the owner of the voice while in dreamland, Aggie paused from her dive-prepping and stepped back from the edge. As she did this, the overall pleasantry of her surroundings soured, and all the pleasant greenery and sunlight died away and was replaced with a blackness which was only penetrated by glints of a green and sinister glow.

"Yes! JUMP!" Cried the voice of the small-sized adult bird, but it didn't sound happy anymore. Aggie turned around to see a horrific sight below her. The lake had become as red as blood, with bird-shaped forms floating in it with their faces down or staring up with fear frozen in dead, whitened eyes.

Aggie screamed and tried to turn around and run, only to stand face to face with the adult bird who had called her sparkle. He hardly resembled a bird anymore. All of the birds turned into pigs

"The Cuckanov-curse! Join the rest!" The pig to push her over the edge, and she screamed and punched him in order to get loose. "JUMP! JUMP! JOIN THE REST!"

"Ugh, NO!" Aggie cried out, struggling in Red's grip as he pulled her down from the fence and down to safety.

"Aggie, wake up!" He screamed.

Aggie suddenly opened her eyes. She looked at Red with a shocked expression. She breathed heavily, blinking in a confused manner as she realized where she were and who was actually holding her. Then her face scrounged up, and she started to sob loudly.

"The Cuckanov-curse…!" She said as tears started to stream down her cheeks, adding to the moisture of her feathers which was already soaked by the rain.

"The what? What are you talking about?" Red asked while looking at her with confusion and concern. To his surprise, Aggie grabbed hold of him, burying her face into his chest and shaking violently.

"I keep seeing faces, so many faces…!"

He heard her say, her voice cracking nearly into tears again. Seeing her like this… it felt like a pin in his heart. He swallowed, and wrapped his arms around her, holding her in a comforting embrace.

"Hey… It was a nightmare." He whispered. "It's alright. You're safe now."

* * *

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Leonard screamed in fury. His cry ringing out and echoing across limbo to frighten quite a few other restless souls, along with Ross. Leonard's face contorted in frustration, as his jaw popped sideways, his eyes nearly popped out, and his head flew up to hit the ceiling, along with a generous portion of his spine.

Ross's face contorted as well, but in a much less cartoony way and into something more along the lines of disgust and concern. This was turning out to be quite a horror show for him, and he hadn't even asked for a raise yet.

"Easy Leonard, this is no time to lose your head." He tried while approaching his commander This seemed to have an effect, as Leonard slowly but surely calmed down. He started to mumble to herself in a re-assuring manner.

"You're right… I'm calm. I am… heartless. I have no feelings what-so-ever... I am in my zone…"

The king pig grew quiet and sank into a pile on the floor. Ross carefully approached him with his upper lip turned. His leader had relaxed himself to the point of looking like a deflated whoopee-cushion.

"I think I just had a moment of clarity, Ross." Leonard said, his voice slightly muffled as his great part of her cranium seemed like it had imploded. "I'll have to kill her myself. In person."

"What? You mean physically?" Ross said skeptically, waving a hoof at Leonard's nearly blob-ish current form.

"You know what they say: If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself!" Leonard suddenly sprinted up, his bones and flesh re-setting itself so quickly that it made Ross jump.

"But that means going top-side…" Ross said, fighting his urge of wanting to throw up.

Leonard smiled, and did a few stretching movements, checking himself whether any of his half-composed anatomy were still out of its proper place. "Precisely. I have so many fond memories of Tropigal Paradise… And killing the last Cuckanov with my own hoofs will be all the more sweet!"

He clipped viciously with his hoofs, then pulled out a bottle of perfume from the insides of his garbs and started to spray himself with it.

"But you're dead and falling apart!" Ross started, then shook his head and got back to the subject. " How do expect to get to Tropigal Paradise in one piece?!"

Magically pulling out a red coat from his garbs and wrapping it around her, Leonard turned to his sidekick and held out the relic towards him. "Don't worry. I know how to express-travel." The pig-head atop of the relic opened its mouth and started to spew out green smoke that enveloped the two, and launched them to the surface.


	7. Welcome to Tropigal Paradise

It was a lovely day in the finer neighborhoods of Tropigal Paradise. Located in the upper east side of the island there was an area full of many huts with colorful flowers, known as Tropigal village, where birds with an appreciation for a peaceful lifestyle lived, most of them in the autumn of their lives.

The dowager empress Matilda had moved there many years ago as she enjoyed how it had preserved it's natural flowery more than most of the other islands around the world as it got urbanized. It was a quiet neighborhood, with no pigs or stressful workers that ran around.

However, the house of the empress had been quite un-quiet these last few months. Birds had come in and out of it with such frequency that you'd think it was a carnival-ride. These had largely consisted of either young female white birds which had claimed to be Agatha, or various con-birds that would assurer her the re-union with her lost granddaughter and then with conviction try to place their mittens on some of that reward gold which had been promised.

This day, lovely as it was, had been no different as her artistic second cousin, Willow, had brought yet another candidate to her doorstep.

"Ah yes, I remember it so well. Uncle Philip was from Winter Wonderham, Uncle Tony was from South Hamerica, and every spring…"

"We would take picnics by the shore on Sunday." Matilda finished, sitting in a chair in her private library. She glared at the strange white bird, who looked back at her with an uncertain grin on her face. This bird wore a similarity to Agatha, but was too lanky and plain to ever possibly be of royal blood, and also possessed a dialect that sounded like it came from a completely different part of Bird Island than Matilda's deceased son. Peckinpah's family had lived. "Haven't you got anything better to do?" The empress asked with an annoyed tone in her voice.

Willow had been watching the whole scene from the background of the room, and then hurriedly placed a hoofed hand on the fake-Agatha's shoulder and quickly goaded her out of the room.

"Dear, you have to leave now. Goodbye!" She said with a sweet but impatient voice that carried a distinct but graceful accent. As she left the room with the impostor, Matilda shook her head and mumbled wearily to herself.

"No more. No more…!"

It didn't take long before Willow returned with a tea-set in her arms and an apologetic look in her face.

"Ugh, I must say, I am so sorry. I thought for sure that one was real. Well she was real, I mean, she was a white bird, but no, not the one we was looking for." She said while placing the seat on a table between them. She then started to pour steaming hot water from a kettle into two white and blue teacups. "But we won't be fooled next time, no, I am going to think up really hard questions and make sure they'll be no room for any doubt."

"No!" Matilda suddenly said as Willow looked at her cousin in surprise and stopped pouring, and straightened her yellow and red hat.

"My heart can't take it anymore." The empress stretched out a wing to grab a framed photograph that was fixed on the table. She took a good look at it.

It had her Agatha in it, 5 years old and smiling warmly to whoever had taken the picture back in the day. Smiling in a painting or photograph was something that was seen as inappropriate by high society back then. But it had been impossible to capture Agatha's essence with a frown. No her parents had made an exception for her.

Matilda sighed sadly and turned the frame down on the table. "I will see no more girls pretending to be Agatha. It's time to let go of the past."

* * *

After having arrived at the port, Red, Aggie, Bomb, and Chuck walked out of the port while carrying their bags. Chuck was extremely happy that he finally arrived in Tropigal Paradise as he ran around, not far from his friends.

While walking, Aggie gave a good look around the place.

"So all of this is Tropigal Paradise?" Aggie asked while looking at the surroundings. There were rare and colorful flowers, coconut trees, bamboo trees, and birds carrying their surfboards to surf in the beach.

"Well, there's a volcano on the other side of the island." Bomb explained. "But it won't erupt for a while."

As Aggie walked around and beheld these wonders around her, she failed to notice that she had walked onto a road nearby.

Red saw her as he quickly ran over to her and pulled her back on the sidewalk just as a stampede of hatchlings past them. "Gotta be careful where you go here, Ags! This may be the island where everyone is having fun, and they can do anything they want."

"Sorry, seems like all you these days is to save me..." The white bird said. "I didn't get a chance to thank you for that by the way."

Red looked away in an awkward fashion. This was the first time since the incident on the boat that they had talked about it. After the storm, Aggie had been quite quiet, not wishing to discuss what it was that had happened… Or the meaning behind her words back on deck. Chuck had done his best to cheer her up by giving her Billy, the sign, while Bomb had told Red not to push the issue until she had returned to normal, which had been an instruction that Red had gladly obliged. After seeing her in such an emotional state, he felt slightly nervous in her presence, as if she would suddenly have another emotional breakdown and clamber onto him again. The look she had given him when waking up from the nightmare. He never wanted to see her like that again.

"Hey, no worries. Anybody would've done the same thing in the same circumstances." Red said.

"Well, maybe…. Um, could you let go of me now?" Aggie looked down at his wings, which were still locked on the sides of her wings. Red twitched as he realized this and let go of her.

"Sorry."

"Heh, no worries. But I still doubt most would be brave enough to pull through a storm like that just to save me." Aggie said, which made Red blink in confusion.

The cardinal had in fact never been called brave before. Angry, friendless, being alone; these were compliments which he had heard before and taken with pride. But brave? That was a first.

Before he could give a witty reply to this, Aggie had walked up to him, placed a hand on his left shoulder and give him a quick kiss on his cheek. Red jumped a bit away from her in surprise, and his cheeks started to turn red as he realized what had happened. Although his blush are hardly to see since his color was red.

"Consider it a sign of appreciation, from the royal pain." Aggie smiled and did a quick curtsy. Red simply looked at her, being in one of those rare states where he was completely speechless.

"Ahem!" two male voices called the two back to reality.

"You two, snap out of it. We better get going." Chuck said as the four continue to walk.

Aggie, however, was a regular bundle of nerves, while Red tried to give her a few last minute pointers for Willow.

"Where was Uncle Tony from?" He tried to ask, but Aggie didn't seem to hear him. She was nervously biting her nails and looking down.

"What if Willow just doesn't think I am the one? What if she takes one look at me and tells me to make like a chocolate smoothie with cherry on top?" She asked.

Red stretched out an arm and gently pulled her hand from her beak. "She will if you keep doing that on your fingers. But seriously, you shouldn't be nervous. Remember that we all believe in you."

"Yeah, but a couple of days ago I didn't have a past at all, and now I'm trying to remember an entire lifetime!" She said in a stressed tone.

"That's why you got us! Now… Where was Uncle Tony from?" He repeated the question more insistently.

"… Winter Wonderham?"

* * *

As they arrived, they walked a stone-path up to the door, seeing plenty of trimmed bushes and planted acacia trees in the front of the lawn on their way. They rang the doorbell and waited with anticipation on the doorstep.

It didn't take long before the door opened to reveal a short gray female bird dressed in the black and white outfit of a maid.

"Yes?" She asked, but before she could hear what the visitors wanted, she was nearly knocked over as Willow suddenly rushed over to the open door.

"Willow!" Bomb cried out in a joyous manner, and reached for the female blue bird's wing.

"Bomb! Well this was unexpected!" Willow replied lovingly, and suddenly noticed her boyfriend's surprised-looking companions. "Oh my, where are my manners? Come in everyone!"

She backed away from the doorway and welcomed the foursome in with a smile, goading them to her living room, where she sat down in a red, expensive-looking sofa. She whispered something to her maid, who nodded and left the room.

"Now tell me Bomb," She said, while batting her eyes in flirty manner at the Greater Antillean Bullfinch, "Who are your friends?"

Bomb, who looked happier than a mouse on a street filled with cheese, went over to Red's side and patted him on the head. "This here is Red, my most trusted associate." Then, he went over to Chuck. "This is Chuck. The fastest bird there is" After this introduction, he, then, went over to Aggie, who looked pretty nervous as she straightened herself. Bomb cleared his throat and started to speak in an important manner. "And last, but not least, let me introduce her highness, grand-duchess Agatha Cuckanov!"

Willow's eyes widened. She leant forward to take a better look at Aggie. "Oh my goodness… You certainly look like Agatha." Willow said in an intrigued voice. But then she straightened herself in the sofa and spoke in a more neutral tone. "But so did many of the others. Why don't you sit down?" She gestured with her wing towards a couch in front of her. Aggie nodded and went to seat herself. Bomb sat down next to Willow, while Chuck sits down on another coach, and Red stood behind the coach that Aggie was sitting in, with a suspenseful look in his face.

"Now, I'm gonna be asking you some questions, questions that only the real Agatha would know, so you just answer them as honestly as you can." Willow said in an explanatory tone to Aggie. The albino bird nodded to show that she understood. "First question: Where were you born?"

Aggie looked at the Willow and searched for the answer in the things that Red and Bomb had taught her. This wasn't a hard one though, for the things she had learned from her supposed biography that was directly related to her was her best subject.

"At the Birderine-palace." Aggie said.

Willow nodded. "Good. And how does Agatha like her tea?"

"She doesn't like tea, just hot water and lemon."

"Correct."

As time went on, Willow asked Aggie many different questions about things such as customary ethics, the Cuckanov clan's favorite vacation spots, Aggie's favorite hobbies as a child, the middle-names of distant relatives and events of great importance for either her parents or siblings. Many of these were hard questions that made both Red and Bomb to cold sweat, and they constantly jumped back and forth between a feeling of dread and relief as Willow asked her and Aggie in return flawlessly answered every single one of them.

This went on for such a long time that Chuck had started to get bored for not running for few hours.

Willow had come to her final question. "You have done very good. Better than most, so here's the final question. You'll probably find it a little impertinent, but indulge me: How did you escape during the siege of the palace?"

Bomb let out a small gagging sound as he choked on the tea which he had been drinking, and shot a horrified look past Aggie at Red, who himself looked like he had been struck by lightning.

The red cardinal turned around and face-palmed. Out of all the things they had taught her that was the one thing he had failed to tell Aggie about that. Heck, he hadn't even told Bomb about that.

Aggie's brows knitted as she thought carefully. She couldn't recall ever going over anything like that with Red or Bomb, so she had no choice but to search herself and guess. If she really was the grand-duchess of so much renown, surely if she looked hard enough into herself, the answer would appear. She thought back to the palace where she and Chuck had met Red and Bomb, where this siege had happened. This lead her to think about the song she had sung, and as she did that, a blurry sort of impression, like a fragment of something forgotten, started to appear from her subconscious.

"There was a bird-boy…" Aggie started uncertainty. "… A red hatchling who worked in the palace. He opened a wall."

Willow raised her eyebrows, while Chuck and Bomb looked confused. Red had now stopped face-palming and turned to stare at Aggie, his frustrated look having transformed into one of something that resembled shock.

Aware of the stares on her, Aggie gave of a little giggle and started to talk in a light, apologetic fashion. "I'm sorry, that sounds a little crazy. Red hatchling opening walls…!"

Bomb then turned to Willow, "So… Is she a Cuckanov?"

Willow looked unreadable. Even though Matilda had told her she didn't want to see any more girls claiming they were Agatha, she had quickly become intrigued by this one, as she not only greatly resembled the pictures of the grand-duchess which her friend had shown her, but she also had a distinct similarity to the dowager herself. "Well, she answered every question…" She said thoughtfully while reassembling the tea-set and standing up.

This made bomb smile broadly and jump up from the sofa. "You hear that, girl? You made it!"

Aggie looked really happy while Chuck excitedly clapped his hands, and running around, and Red still looked dumbstruck as he wandered outside.

Bomb turned to Willow with great anticipation in his eyes. "So when do we go and see the empress?"

"I'm afraid you won't." Willow said. Aggie and Chuck's happy expressions faltered. "The empress will not allow it."

The artist gave them a sad look as she started to carry the tray out of the room. She suddenly stopped though, and adopted a look of surprise on her face as he looked at Bomb.

"Now Willow, my love. Surely you can think of some way to arrange a brief interview with the Dowager. I refuse to budge till an answer occurs to you. Please?" He begged as he kept hugging Willow lovingly.

Willow tried half-heartedly to shake him off, and as she looked at her boyfriend, her expression softened. Then all of a sudden, she got a clarified look on her face.

"Does anyone of you like party?" Willow asked and looked around. "We have a dance party in the town center, just near the volcano. The Dowanger Empress and I love parties, especially a party has birds dancing with fire. We'd never miss it!" As she said the last thing, she winked at Bomb in a sly manner, and then went out of the room with the tray in her hands.

"We did it!" Bomb triumphantly cried out. He and Red had gone out to the backyard in order to get a minute alone with each other. "We are going to see her imperial highness tonight! We are going to get the golden 10 million reward, and then we are gonna be rich!"

Red didn't share the excitement of his friend. He was sitting on a decorative rock in the garden and kept staring forward as if he was trying to decipher an answer to a major riddle out of the thin air in front of him. "Bomb, buddy, she is the princess…" He tried to say, but his voice was so low that it didn't reach the ears of the excited Bomb as he continued to joyfully rant.

"And Aggie was amazing! Heck, I almost believed her! And Willow." The black bird laughed in with excitement.

Red looked annoyed, and opened his beak to try and speak a little louder, but as Aggie suddenly came running out of the door, he immediately swallowed his words.

The white bird's eyes sparkled, and her face looked like it was gonna explode from the excitement. "Willow wants to take us shopping for the party! Shopping in Tropigal Paradise! Oh my golly, can you believe it?!"

* * *

The entire day was spent with Willow as she goaded the four through the finer shopping spots. They traveled all over the island to shop. They bought fancy clothes for the party. The clothes are decorated with flowers, and leaves. It's like they lived in Hawaii. They have to try the clothes first, before they'll buy them.

Bomb had tried many clothes, but none of them fit him because his too fat, but Willow helped him find one. Chuck tried many clothes. All of them fit him, so he bought them all. Aggie tried lots of dresses, but she rather chose the white sparkling one. Willow bought one blue dress, but she bought a lot of hats that were look like her used hat. As for Red, he has his own clothes, but he is the only one who wasn't so excited as he's not in a mood for fitting and/or buying, but he joins with his friends anyway.

As the four finish shopping and they're on their way to a restaurant to eat, Red noticed a jewelry store. He has a different idea rather than having fun shopping with his friends as he looked at them. "Um… you guys go, I'll just buy something."

"Okay." Aggie said in a confusing look as she saw Red going to the jewelry store.

As she doesn't want to know what is he up to, she proceeds following her friends.

Red arrived at the jewelry story, and stands in front of the counter to see an old female bird, checking a diamond. "Excuse me?" He pardoned.

The old bird puts the diamond down, and greeted him. "Oh hi, young bird. What can I do for you?"

Red was so nervous, but he'll just say it. "I'm here to buy an engagement ring."

The old bird was so surprise. "Oh, a girlfriend you like to propose?"

"Actually…, an old childhood friend of mine." Red blushed. "I have feelings for her ever since, but I can't tell her. If a bought a ring, I can tell her how I feel."

"Well, I have a ring here for two best friends who are in love with each other." The old bird took out a gold ring with a blue diamond.

"Uh, it's nice, but do you have a white diamond?" Red asked. "She likes white."

"Oh yes, there's one." She took the ring with a blue diamond from Red, and gave him the ring with a white diamond.

"Thanks. I only have this for a trade." He said as he took out from his bag; a bowl of crispy worms.

"I'll take it!" She exclaimed as she took the bowl of crispy worms, then winked at Red. "Good luck with the girl."

Red nodded, and looked at the engagement ring. He doesn't know what or when will he tell Aggie. He can't tell her that he was using her at first gold. With a sadden sigh, he hides the box of the ring in his bag before he catches up to his friends.


	8. Reunited

While the Aggie and Chuck had gone home to Willow to change into more formal clothing for the party, Red and Bomb had ordered themselves a pair of tailored suits during the day which they had gone to pick up. Now waiting outside the party in their elegant new threads, and coupled with dark top hats, the two birds could have easily been mistaken for a pair of very rich gentlemen.

Bomb was pacing back and forth while Red sat on a rock, smiling at his usually calm and collected partner's nervous state.

"We have nothing to be scared of." He said. "She is the princess."

"Yeah yeah I know…" Bomb replied and waved his wing in a dismissing fashion.

"No, you don't know!" The red bird yelled. "I was that red hatchling she talked about, the one who opened the wall. She is the real thing, Bomb."

Bomb's eyes popped open. He started to gasp, struggling to find the words for this situation. "… That means… Our little Aggie has found her family…" His expression started to widen out into a happier one as he properly digested this shocking new information. "And we have found the heir to the Bird Island throne!" He looked at Red, and in the blink of an eye, his smirked at him as he thinks his friend is in love with the princess. "And you…"

"Walk out of her life forever." Red finished bluntly and stood up from the rock to walk down towards the street. Bomb was about to say, but Red cuts him off "Princesses don't marry servants. Especially if one is a special bird and the other is weirdo with eyebrows."

Bomb followed his friend with a pair of sympathetic eyes. "I know, but…"

Red stopped and turned around to give his old friend a dry look. "We're going to go through with this as if nothing has changed."

"I know what you both feel for each other back at the boat." Bomb said with a serious voice, lined with a concerned undertone. "You have to tell her."

"Tell me what?" A curious voice suddenly asked. Red turned around to see that Aggie had arrived with Chuck. She is now dressed in a pretty white coat. Chuck has the same outfit as Red and Bomb has.

A bit behind her was Willow, looking radiant as well in a formal blue dress with a rainbow hat.

Red removed his hat and held it against his chest in respect. "How beautiful you look." He said, to which the albino bird gave him a soft smile.

"Well, thank you. Shall we?" Aggie extended her arm to him as Red wrapped his arm around hers and the two moved towards the entrance.  
Willow joined Bomb's side as they too went toward the entrance of the party. Bomb looked at Chuck, who was alone in this party, as he asked the canary. "Hey, you don't have a date?"

"Nah." Chuck replied. "I don't need one. Besides, I have you guys."

Bomb smiled as the bird proceed walking in.

As they walked in, a few well-groomed workers in the lobby offered to take their coats and hats. Red obliged and looked up at the stairs that lead to their seats, only to find a stunning sight above him.

Aggie had already had her outdoor-clothing taken care of and was now standing in front of her friends in a magnificent white evening dress sparkled like a star-filled night sky after her. Her hair and feathers also seemed to carry stars in them, as they were adorned with diamonds aligned by a pair of earrings and a bracelet.

Red's beak went slack, and so did pretty much everybody else's beaks in the room, as whispered "oohs" and "aahs" resonated all across the lobby. A brief recollection flashed before his eyes: The no-nonsense female white bird that he had met back in the abandoned palace had been wearing worn-down winter clothes… Now in retrospect he could see just how little those rags had done for her.

Aggie looked down towards Red and impatiently beckoned him with her paw to join her. This made Red cut his little visit to Memory Lane short, and he quickly hurried up to accompany her.

Red and aggie found their seats, which were positioned in the front of a bird who was performing a fire dance. Bomb sat a few seats behind them, looking bummed out because Willow had to sit with the dowager empress in order to not alert her of the surprise visit.

Red looked up and touched Aggie shoulder.

"Look, there she is." He said and pointed a table, almost far away from them, where Matilda and Willow was sitting. Aggie looked up and saw Willow's familiar profile as she seated herself next another white bird, which she immediately recognized from the painting she and Chuck had seen back at the palace. She looker older than in the painting, but it was unmistakably her, nodding her regally featured head in acknowledgement to Willow's presence and then re-directing it towards the screen.

As the host announced the party is about to begin, Aggie prayed in her mind: "Please… Let her remember me."

Aggie had been in a party before. She had of course heard of them mentioned and talked about as some kind of new hype in popular culture that most people either found fascinating or saw as some silly new trend.  
While watching performers dancing, there are food served on the table, and the birds start to eat. They were all starving while watching the show for too long.

Though fascinated at first, Aggie soon found herself focusing less and less as she waited for the final show, and had in typical bird-fashion started to impatiently tap her foot. Red noticed this and placed a wing on hers, assuring her that everything was going to be fine.

Soon after that, the dance stopped as the performers were taking a break, and Matilda and Willow were walking inside the room, and Red stood up and offered Aggie his hand.

"Come on. I guess it's time." He said.

* * *

Making their way up to the next floor of the volcano, where the dowager is taking a break from watching, Aggie was beginning to feel really nervous. The anticipation was killing her, and it took every ounce of self-discipline she had to in her body not turn around and run away.

"Relax, we're going to be great." Red said as they stopped outside the door. He turned around, giving her a reassuring smile and squeezing her hand. "You wait here. I'll go in and announce you properly."

The cardinal put a hand on the handle, but before he could pull it down, Aggie put an inquisitive wing on his shoulder. "Red…"

"Yes?" Red turned to her, his eyes looking at her expectantly.

Aggie swallowed. If there was any appropriate time for her to tell him of her feelings, this seemed like the one. "Look, we've been through a lot together… And I just wanted to…" The albino bird began, but found herself struggling to find the right words to say what she was gonna try and say now. Aggie looked carefully at the red bird. This was indeed the most appropriate time, but the courage that had spurred to try and let loose her emotions was faltering. She wanted to detail the full extent of her gratitude, how happy she was to have met him and Bomb, how grateful she was that he had saved her life, and how if she didn't turn out to be the grand duchess after all, she still wanted to thank him anyway for believing in her… And if possible, remain with him. "Well… Thank you. I guess." Was all that she could muster though. "Thank you for everything."

Red blinked, then nodded with a smile and turned to open the door, which made Aggie quietly curse her sudden inability.

But Red hesitated and looked back at her. There were hardly any people around the corridor at this time, and the break would be long, so he too realized that this would be a good moment to tell her how he felt.

"Aggie?" He said, which made the Aggie faced him.

"Yes?" Aggie said in a tone that betrayed a bit of eager anticipation.

Red could feel his face heat up. He was a good talker, but this time the words seemed to stick inside his throat like flies on sticky paper. "I'm… I… Um…" He mumbled.

"Yeees?" Aggie said in a slightly impatient tone.

The red bird bit his lip. This was the perfect moment to do as Bomb had urged him and tell this girl how he really felt: How he wished her all the best, but that seeing her go would still hurt because he… Because he…

"… Want to wish you good luck, I guess."

"Oh…" Aggie said disappointedly.

Red stretched out his wing to her. She accepted it, and they shook hands in a stiff, formal manner. "Good luck." He said and let go. He turned around, took a deep breath, opened the door and went in, muttering "Well, I guess here it goes."

Focusing on looking and sounding as proper and polite as possible for the royalty he was about to meet with, he neglected to shut the door with the efficient force, merely making it hit the shutting stile and leaving the door slightly ajar.

Walking in, Red quickly locked eyes with Willow, who quickly got up. Standing straight and offering a gentlemanly smile, he announced his presence with a calm and steady voice as the Western Crowned Pigeon went over to him.

"Please inform her majesty, the dowager empress, I have found her granddaughter, Grand Duchess Agatha." As he talked, the empress Matilda, who was on the balcony of the window, turned her head and glanced at the unexpected visitor. "She's waiting to see her just outside that door."

Willow nodded, blinking slyly with her eye at the red bird. "Very sorry, sir, but the dowager empress will see no-one." She said in a phony, apprehensive manner.

A contempt-filled snort could be heard from balcony, as the dowager's glance at the cardinal bird had hardened. "Kindly tell that impertinent young man that I have seen enough Grand Duchess Agathas to last me a lifetime."

Willow adopted a saddened look, while Red tried to reach his voice to the empress. "Please, just let me -"

"Now if you excuse me, I wish to live out the rest of my lonely life in peace." Matilda said and turned her attention back towards the stage.

"I'll see you to the door." Willow said as she run to the door to led Red out. "Come now, to the door."

But Nick wasn't gonna give up that easy, and rushed to the window balcony to talk to the empress. "Your majesty, I intend you no harm." He said in a chipper tone, and went over next to the white chicken, which earned him a bothered look. "My name is Red. I used to work at the palace."

"Well that's one I haven't heard, I must say." Matilda said sarcastically, started to walk away from the red bird.

Red quickly follows her. "Wait, don't go! Please, just hear me out."

"I know what you're after. I've seen it before." The empress said coldly and turned around. "Men who train women in the royal ways…!"

"Please just listen -"

"I have listened, and I have had enough! I don't care how much you've fashioned this girl to look like her, sound like her or act like her. In the end it's never her!"

"But this time it is her!" Red said, starting to look and sound desperate.

"Mr. Red, I've heard of you." Matilda said and pointed an accusing finger at him. "You're one of those con-birds from St. Petersbird who held auditions to find an Agatha-look alike."

This made Willow gasp in shock when she heard about it. Red felt cold. How on earth could she have heard about that?!

"But your grace, we've come all the way from Bird Island for-"

"And others have come all the way from Piggywood. It's mind-boggling what people can do just for a reward."

Red, seeing no other option, knelt before the dowager empress grabbed her hand. "But it's not like that! It's not what you think!" He begged.

Matilda pulled her hand away from his, like it had been burned and moving away from him with a disgusted look. "How much pain do you have to inflict on an old woman for money?" She asked. Suddenly, there was a sound at the door. Two bird guards had walked in. "Gentlebirds, remove him at once!" Matilda said and pointed at Red. The guard birds immediately got to work and grabbed Red. The cardinal bird struggled to try and get out of their grips as they dragged him to the door.

"But she is Agatha! I swear if you speak to her you'll see!" Red desperately cried out.

The two guard birds dropped the red bird out into the corridor and closed the door behind him with a slam. Red quickly looked at the door in anger, then turned around to see Aggie.

His heart sank, as her expression was one of heartbroken disbelief. She had heard everything.

"It was all a lie, wasn't it?" She asked, her voice nearly cracking.

"No…" Red said as he quickly got to his feet.

"You used me…" Aggie's eyes drilled accursedly into his. "I was just part of your con to get her reward?!"

"NO! No-no-no…" The red bird quickly said. "Look, it may have started out that way…"

Aggie gave off a groan, turned around and walks away with quick steps. Red tried to catch up to her. "But it's all different now because you really are Agatha! You are -"

"Stop it!" Aggie spat out. "From the very beginning you lied! And I believed you! I actually thought I…" She didn't finish the sentence, but instead gave off an angry, growling sound.

"Agatha please! When you spoke about the hidden door in the wall and the red hatchling, that's when I -"

"I don't want to hear about anything I said or remembered! You just stay away from me! And don't call me Agatha"

Red's hand shot out and grabbed her by the wrist. When Aggie felt this, she almost punched Red on his face. "Don't make me punch you!"

Red releases her arm as he was afraid to get punch by a girl "Aggie please, you have to know the truth!" He pleaded

Aggie shook her head. Tears had started flow from the corners of her eyes now, which made Red feel even worse. "Just leave me alone, EYEBROWS!" She shrieked, and then ran away.

Red stayed and watched her helplessly go. Those last words had burned in him like white-hot iron, for they were perfectly true. He had lied to her, manipulated her. Anything he said now wouldn't matter, cause she would be right to think of anything that he could say after this would just be more lies. No, more words wouldn't help.

* * *

Red waited outside the party where the empress car stood parked. He saw Matilda walked to her car, where another bird guard, Bill Beakins, opened the car-door for her, but Red immediately opens the door to the driver's seat. The empress soon arrived and stepped into the back of the car. As she did, Red turned the key in the ignition and floored the throttle, making the automobile burn out onto the road with an alarming speed.

The empress nearly fell down from her seat "Bill, slow down!"

Red turns from the front seat and looks at her, and the elderly chicken's eyes widened in surprise when she saw who it was.

"I'm not Bill, and I'm not gonna slow down until you listen." The red bird said, turning the wheel harshly.

"You… How dare you?! Stop this car immediately!" Matilda demanded furiously She was ignored though, for Red was too busy focusing on the road.

The car finally reached Willow's home. Matilda sat up in the backseat, her crown crooked and her usually well-combed ears in complete disarray.

"Where on earth did you learn how to drive…?" She mumbled incredulously.

"Nowhere." Red said and got out of the car, rushed around it and opened the passenger door. "You have to see her. Just look at her!" He told the empress and pointed towards the house.

Matilda had regained some of her composure as they had stopped, and now refused to look at her kidnapper. "I will not be badgered by you any longer. Have you no shred of decency in you?"

As a response to this, Red knelt down in front of the open door and pulled something of his pocket. "Do you recognize this?"

Matilda looked down and gasped as she saw what rested in the palm of the red bird's wing: The music cannon she had once had made for her Agatha, completely intact and just as exquisite as the day it had been made. She took it in her hand and inspected it with a disbelieving look.

"Where did you get this?" She asked in a low voice.

"It's a long story of which I won't bother you with at the moment." Red said. "Just listen to me. I know what you've lost… But it's possible that she has been as lost and lonely as you."

Matilda glanced at Red. "… You'll stop at nothing until I see her, won't you?"

"Yeah…" Red smirked. "That's because I'm probably as stubborn as you." He then stood up and gestured towards the house with an open wing.

Aggie had been tricked… Used AND tricked! It was as clear and hurtful as shards of glass in her feathers, and as she packed the bag in the room in which she and Chuck had been allowed to stay in, those shards was cutting all the deeper.

Bomb, who had been so nice to her and Red… That red bird had done something unforgivable to her and that poor lady! She probably would have cried still if her determination had been just an inch smaller.

When getting back to her room, she had quickly searched and found her pendant, which she had removed for once in order to make way for the necklace which Willow had been kind enough to borrow her. After putting it on again, she knew what she needed to do. Giving up wasn't in her nature. While she had been played for a fool, she was still in the city where her family was. She was gonna find them, even if she had to go from door to door on every bird-filled household in the city and ask them personally. She had to leave right away, even though it meant leaving Chuck behind. This made her feel bad because he was a sign of her journey, but she just couldn't remain here any longer. Not with any of those con-birds running around.

As the albino bird heard a small knock on the door, she scowled and continued to pack without looking around, assuming it was just Red with yet another lame excuse.

"Go away Red!" She said angrily. Her mood wasn't improved as she heard the sound of the door opening, and feeling how someone had just entered the room. She started and turned around, only to stop mid-sentence when she saw who it was.

The dowager empress. She had the same unreadable expression on her face too, though her eyes had something of a skeptical edge in them as she looked at Aggie. "Oh! I'm sorry, I thought you were…"

"I know very well who you thought I was." Matilda said. She didn't look or sound especially angry, but a strain in her voice suggested impatience. "Question is, who is it that you think you are?"

"I was hoping…" Aggie began. She felt a bit flustered, and started to fiddle with her pendant yet again in a frustrating force of habit. "I was hoping you could tell me."

The dowager blinked, and then she walked past Aggie and stopped in front of a window through which she could see to the street below.

"My dear, I'm old." She said in a tired tone without turning around. "Old and tired of getting conned and tricked."

Aggie carefully walked up to her. "But I don't want to trick you."

"And I suppose the money doesn't interest you either?" Matilda asked with a hint of irony.

Aggie got closer to the empress, she spoke with a pleading voice. "I just want to know who I am… Whether or not I belong to a family. Your family…"

Matilda turned around and looked at Aggie. She bemusedly understood why this one had been picked. Out of all the fake-Agatha's she had met, this one seemed to be the closest to what she had imagined she would look like at this age… Not to mention she had a talent for sounding honest.

"You're a very good actress. Best one yet in fact, but… I've had enough." The empress said, and then started to make her way to the door.

Aggie looked down with a disappointed look, but she smelled a strong whiff of an oddly familiar smell.

"Lavender?" She wondered aloud.

"My favorite perfume." Matilda said before continuing to the door.

"Yes… I spilled a bottle of it on the carpet of my room." Aggie said and turned around, again fiddling with her pendant. The dowager had suddenly stopped in her step. "It was completely soaked, and after that it always smelt like lavender… Just like you."

Matilda turned around to look at Aggie, who herself hadn't noticed and kept on talking. "I used to lie on that rug whenever you went back to Tropigal Paradise… Missing you, and thinking about you…"

Matilda felt a sudden need to sit down. Fortunately enough there was a small couch near the door, on which she positioned herself. In her mind she briefly wondered if anyone at all could've known that besides her. But no, she couldn't think of anyone still alive who knew of that story. Either this Mr. Red had been a very informed individual or this was… Something else.

She patted with her hand on the vacant seat beside her, beckoning the younger white bird to sit down beside her. Aggie did so, and as she did, Matilda noticed the pendant around her neck. "What is that?" She asked and pointed at it.

Aggie looked down and held it up between her thumb and her index-finger. "This? Well, I've always had it, since before I can remember."

"May I?" The empress asked and stretched out an open paw. Aggie slipped the pendant over her head, and handed it over to Matilda, who looked closely at it and made out the words which had been carved into it: Together in Tropigal Paradise.

"It was our secret. My Agatha's and mine." She brought up a black purse which had been around her arm and reached her wing into it, taking out pink musical party cannon with yellow stand that Aggie immediately recognized.

"The music cannon!" She gasped, and with that a tidal wave of recollections hit her. "To sing me to sleep when you were in Tropigal Paradise!"

Matilda nodded, a smile starting to form on her face, and handed the cannon to Aggie.  
As she took it, Aggie pushed the key of the pendant into the little hole on the cannon's side. As she started to wind it up, a musical tune started to come out of it. The cannon began to blasts confetti.

And that's when Aggie sang the words which Matilda hadn't heard, except in her dreams, for what seemed like a lifetime.

 _Hear this song, and remember._ _  
_ _Soon you'll be, home with me, once upon a December…!_

The music stopped, and the cannon stopped firing confetti, leaving the two white birds still sitting on the couch and looking at each other.

When the empress and Aggie's eyes met, it was all too clear what had transpired, and with it, it was no longer just Aggie the no-account orphan bird from Bird Island without even a shred of a past that sat there like before. Now, like the final piece of a big puzzle finally put in its right place, she was whole.

Matilda felt it too. This fuzzy-feathered white bird was Agatha. The one and only Agatha Cuckanov, Grand Duchess and heiress of the Bird Island throne… Her son's daughter, her grandchild, back from the dead.

"Oh Agatha…!" She said, her eyes tearing up and her voice cracking from the joy which she hadn't expected to ever feel again. She grasped Agatha's cheeks, and as the younger white bird started to cry as well, the two embraced each other. "My Agatha!"

Immeasurable was the happiness that this miraculous reunion had given, and as the empress looked over her returned granddaughter's shoulder, thoughts of eternal gratitude was directed towards the window, as if it was a conduit to the bird who had made it all possible.

The bird in question was still standing below the house, looking up at the window. It had now been long enough of a time for him to be certain: The two had found each other. He turned and started to walk down the street, a smile forming on his beak as he thought about it, this thing which had been his goal for such a long time. He had succeeded. This was the end of the road, and he had come to it with triumph.

But now as he was standing on the finish-line, what was there left for him to do?  
As he went off and disappeared from sight that night, the red bird questioned himself whether the Red that had left Bird Island was the same Red that was now walking away or someone completely different, for this strange new cardinal bird only seemed to desire one thing.

* * *

In a place in very outskirts of Tropigal Paradise called Happy Island, there existed an old abandoned clock-tower, which bad piggies, Leonard and Ross, had made into their base of operation.

Leonard was in an unusually good mood this time, and gleefully inspected himself in a broken mirror which had fortunately enough been present when they got there.

"Ross! Get me a comb and find me some perfume!" The king pig cried out. "I want to look my very best for tonight."

"That's gonna take a lot of work, sir…" Ross mumbled ironically as he leaned sourly against a wall, though the undead pig didn't seem to mind this.

"Then get going! We're going to a party." Leonard threw a rolled newspaper on a table nearby for Ross to see.

Ross's eyes widened in surprise as he heard this, and he looked at his mistress in disbelief. "A party?!"

The little pig anxiously went over and saw that it was it was today's newspaper. Holding the paper near the light of a burning candle, he could see the smiling face of a little female white bird on the front-page; Agatha Cuckanov as an eight year old. The headlines spelled: 'Missing Grand Duchess found. Shall appear on grand celebration tonight.'

Ross looked up with excitement as he thought on the prospect of this. "Ooh! I can teach you the latest dance-steps!" He started to demonstrate a couple of peculiar dance-movements for his mistress. "See this? It's the robot! And this, moon-walking! And this one is Gangnam-style. And then put some hips into it! Come on, it's fun!"

Leonard didn't pay him too much attention though, finding the carefree little pig's weird antics annoying. "We'll let the Grand Duchess Agatha have her little fun…" He mumbled deviously.

"That sounds more like it! Live and forget! Or, uh, die and forget in your case." Ross said as he kept dancing.

"… And then we'll finally kill her!" Leonard said, and slammed his hand into the table.

Ross stopped dancing and gave his leader a shocked and disappointed look. "What?! Sir, what happened to the party-aspect?"

"That's where we'll kill her. As she reaches the height of her glory, we'll crush her!" The king pig said, and then proceeded to rip the newspaper into pieces. Fragments of white confetti were carried by the wind over to Ross, who un-amusedly became completely covered.

"And back to square one." Ross said, brushing of most of the paper from his body, and grabbing the picture of little Agatha from the front page, which had landed on his head. "Leonard, I know this is gonna be hard, but please, forget the girl and get a life! You're turning into that captain guy from Peter Bird, and things didn't end well for him at all when he was captured by a crocodile!"

"Don't you worry my little companion, I will get a life." Leonard said and took the picture from Ross's hand. "I will get _her_ life!" He laughed like a maniac, which made Ross uncomfortable.


	9. Nothing's more important than love

It was night time in Tropigal village, and laughter and other happy noises was coming from Matilda's house. The empress and her returned-grandchild were currently sitting in the bedroom, both dressed in nightwear and going over old photographs.

"I remember now," Agatha said as she fondly looked over a photograph of her 4 siblings and herself. "I loved them so much."

Matilda placed a hand on Agatha's arm and gave her a fond smile. "They would not want us to live in the past, not now that we have found each other." She glanced over at a box which she had brought out, which was filled with Agatha's belongings as a child and cooed joyfully as she pulled out a piece of paper and handed to her granddaughter. "Oh, look here. The drawing you gave me. Remember?"

Agatha grabbed it, and nostalgia struck her as she recognized the crude children's drawing which depicted a bird ride on a pig. "Yes! I remember! Stella made me so mad! She said it was a good thing I was a duchess, cause I could never had made it as an artist! Ha, she was right."

"In your laughter once again, I hear my Peckinpah, your dear father." Matilda said and then stood up. She took Agatha's hand and started to lead her towards a desk which was positioned next to big mirror. On the desk was an egg-shaped box. The empress opened it and revealed its content: a sparkling crown of pure diamond. Matilda picked it up and held up high as she gently placed it on Agatha's head. "But you have the beauty of your mother, Silver, empress of all Bird Island."

Agatha looked into the mirror in front of her, the crown sitting perfectly on her head and the reflection of her face matching her awestruck expression.

The very next day, Agatha found herself fitted with beautiful, white dress with a pink ribbon around her waist and golden buttons and the crown of her mother again on her head. Willow's maid had come over to properly form it to her figure.

* * *

Red had just arrived. As he came in, he saw Matilda standing on the side of a desk with a mild look.

The red bird greeted her by bowing his head."You sent for me, your grace?"

As a response to this, Matilda directed her wings towards an open suitcase on the desk next her; it was filled with neatly golden bars.

"100 golden bars, as promised, with my gratitude" the empress said.

Red's eyes went down towards the open suitcase, they were all shiny and sparkling gold, then back towards the elderly white bird again. "I accept your gratitude your highness… But I don't want the gold" he said, earning a surprised look from the empress.

"You don't? Well, what do you want then?" She asked and walked closer to him with a questioning look.

Red looked at her with half-lidded eyes and a small smile. "Unfortunately, nothing you can give me" he said and gave Matilda another bow before turning around as if to leave.

"Wait." The empress said, and Red stopped. Walking up to him, she asked a question that she had been holding in since yesterday. "Young man, where did you find that music cannon?" Red turned to her, an uncertain look on his face. Matilda on the other hand looked like she had realized something. "You were the bird, weren't you? The red hatchling who got us out. You saved her life and mine, you restored her to me, yet you want no reward?"

Red looked away, holding his hand tightly over his right wing. "Not anymore."

"Why the change of mind?" Matilda asked.

"It was more a change of heart." He gave off a third and final bow before adding "I must go", then straightened himself and leaving the room.

Matilda followed him with a pair of sad and confused eyes. This red cardinal bird had earlier been right to call himself as stubborn as her, so why was it that he wouldn't accept the reward now? Suddenly the realization hit Matilda like a rock smashing a window. She first looked stunned, but then she couldn't help but to smile. 'Truly a remarkable young bird, this Red'

* * *

Agatha was making her way up the stairs, when she looked up and could see Red himself coming down towards her. "Hello Red." She said.

Red stopped on the far left of the same step where Agatha stood, shooting her a passive look. "Hello." He said in a polite tone.

Then she spoke with a neutral voice that matched Red's tone. "Did you collect your reward?"

"My business is complete." The red bird looked at her with his usual half-lidded eyes, but with no trace of his complementary, cheeky smile. An awkward silence arose between the him and the albino bird, which was broken by a strict voice from below.

"Young man." A voice called. Red and Agatha looked down. Looking up at them was the maid, her hands on her hips and looking at the cardinal bird disapprovingly. "You are to address the Grand Duchess as you 'highness'."

"Oh no that's-" Agatha began, only to be cut off by Red.

"Please." The red bird turned to Agatha and bowed his head. "Your highness. I am glad that you found what you were looking for." He raised his head again.

Agatha gave him a weird look, which then hardened."Yes, I am glad you did too."

"Well then, goodbye, your highness." Red bowed his head once again for Agatha, then turned on his heel and walked down the steps. The white bird's eyes followed him as he went towards the door, before she turned her back on him and started walking up as well.

"Goodbye…" She mumbled disappointingly.

* * *

Bomb inspected himself in the mirror in his uniform-like get-up, which was adorned with medals and a small saber hanging on the side of a white belt.

Then, Chuck looked at his reflection in the mirror too, with the same clothes that Bomb wore, except that he wears a crown. Chuck doesn't like the crown so he removed it off of his head.

"You look fabulous." Bomb told to Chuck

"You don't look bad yourself." The canary noted with a smile.

It was night, the time leaning ever closer to the big banquet in the grand duchess honor. Bomb and Chuck, having played a vital part in returning Agatha, had of course been personally invited by the dowager.

Red was standing in the back of the room. He had been invited too, but had decided that it would be for the best if he didn't appear. Looking at his two friends, he couldn't help but to smile. Then he stood up and walked up to the well-dressed black bird. "Well, if you're ever in St Petersbird again, look me up. So long Bomb."

Red and Bomb shook wings at each other, and gave a friendly hug to each other.

"You're making a mistake." Bomb mumbled.

"Trust me, this is the one thing I'm doing right" Red said.

Then, Red turned to Chuck, who was almost cried. "So long, you crazy canary."

Chuck gave Red a big hug, and cried. "Red, I'm not gonna lie to you. I am… gonna miss you so much when you leave! You can stay here for a little while for, you know, guys' time."

"I can't stay. I don't belong here." Red said as he patted Chuck's shoulder before he go.

Before going out, he turned around, gave Bomb and Chuck one last little wave, and then left.


	10. Love vs curse

The banquet, which had been set up at a large manor, was now at full go. Guests of renown and lineage had arrived with a steady frequency since eight a clock, and was now mingling on the large dancing floor near the main hall.

Peeking through the curtains in back of the room was Agatha, dressed in all her glory and her eyes going from one guest to the other.

She also spotted Chuck, who seemed bored, apparently not being as riveting as one might guess.

The gaze of the albino bird went all over the place, searching but not finding the one she was looking for.

"He's not there." Said a voice behind her. It was Matilda, dressed in gloriously for the occasion as well, walked up to her granddaughter's side.

"Oh I know he's not - I mean, who's not there grandma?" Aggie asked with an ill-attempted attempt to cover the slip of her tongue.

"A remarkable young bird, who found a music cannon." Matilda said.

"Oh he's probably busy spending his reward as fast as he can." Agatha had tried to sound cold, but for Matilda, it sounded synthetic.

"Look at them dance." She said and looked out a the dance floor. "You were born into this world of glittering jewels and fine titles. But, I wonder if this the world that you really want."

Agatha let go of the drape and looked at her grandma, who was now looking at her knowingly. "Of course it is. I found what I was looking for. I found out who I am, I found you…"

"Yes, you did find me. And you'll always have me." Matilda embraced Agatha and held her close, whispering a question into her ear "But is it enough?" The two birds parted as Matilda smiling warmly at her granddaughter's confused face. "My darling, he didn't take the money."

"He… Didn't?" Agatha uttered in disbelief, and as she did, her heart-beat seemed to skip a beat.

"Knowing that you are alive, seeing the woman that you have become, brings me joy I never thought I could feel again." Matilda approached the drape, stopping and glancing at her granddaughter. "Whatever you choose, we will always have each other," she said, and then went out to the other side.

Agatha walked over and peeked out towards the dance floor again, seeing how her grandmother was moving across it, greeting several guest as she did. Aggie made a motion to step out as well, but paused, then stepped back. She sighed.

Then, she felt a sudden breeze, which it came from Chuck's speed of running as she noticed him go, running outside.

"Chuck, where are you going?" She asked but Chuck didn't hear her. Aggie followed Chuck outside, and found that he was running in the garden of labyrinth. Aggie went t the garden to find Chuck, but suddenly, the maze closes when she walk out from where she was before.

* * *

Red was standing in a line to the ticket-booth. He took out something from his bag; an engagement ring he bought for Aggie. Remembering he wants to marry her someday. The way he looked at the ring, he began to realized he want to go back to see Aggie, and tell her that he loved her.

* * *

At the labyrinth, Aggie tried to find Chuck as the maze were closing. "Chuck, you crazy canary! Where are you?" She called as she ignored the closing maze.

"Aggie?"

She heard Chuck's voice as he ran towards her.

"There you are! Where were you?" She asked, but then, she heard someone called her name.

"Agatha."

Being so curious, Aggie and Chuck followed that voice to find who said that, but when they almost got out from the labyrinth, it was getting overgrown with thick roots and vines, each with spikes as big as spearheads. The two birds quickly ran away from this unusual phenomenon, and looked around with a bewildered look.

When they heard the voice again, they turned their heads, and could see that out of the dark stepped the big, hooded form of a fat pig with a short beard under his chin, who grinned a hideous grin.

"Agatha…" The pig said with a voice as soft as silk. "Your highness. Look at what the years have done to us. You, a beautiful young flower. And me… A living corpse!"

"That face… That voice!" Aggie stammered.

Leonard walked closer, a malicious glint shining like fire in his eyes. "Last seen and heard many years ago…"

"The curse…"

"Followed by a tragic night on the ice. Remember?" He reached into the insides of his robe and pulling out a skull-adorned reliquary, which glowing as if containing a grass-green fire.

Aggie's eyes narrowed in anger as it all came back to her. "Leonard!"

"'Leonard'" Leonard mocked her, and turned into an angry mood. "the very same pig that was destroyed by your family! But what goes around comes around!" He bursts out in laughter as he raises the Reliquary.

Aggie stands frozen in terror, unsure of what comes next. Smoke billows out. Pig minions with bat wings take shape from the smoke. They swarm towards Aggie as hey taunt her, poke her, tear her dress, steal her crown. Spinning in circles.

Some minions begin to push Aggie toward the bridge, while some took Chuck away from her, who was trying to protect him.

Ross appeared behind a statue, and shouted at his now former master, "You're on your own, Sir. This can only end in tears."

Aggie bats her arms, fighting them, hitting them. The pigs squealed like the cowards they are and suddenly dissipate back into smoke. Gone, disappeared.

"I'm not afraid of you!" Aggie said confidentially with anger.

"I can fix that." Leonard stated, "Care for a little swim under the ice?" He fired his reliquary with green laser-like smoke, cracking the part of the bridge where Aggie was standing at.

Aggie slides down with the broken part of the bridge as it was half-destroyed.

"Cry for help, Agatha!" The pig laughs evilly. "Who will save you now?"

"I will, fat head!" A voice was heard, as Leonard turned around to see Red charged at him.

Red punched Leonard on the face. Aggie falls further downward as pieces of the bridge crumble. Red leaps over the side after her. She struggles to grasp his hand.

"Red!" Aggie exclaimed happily while struggling. "If we live through this remind me to thank you."

"You can thank me later." Red said as he helped her climb up.

Leonard stares down at them over the side. "How enchanting, 'together again', for the last time!" He fires his reliquary. A swarm of pi minions blast Red into the air until he reached back on the bridge.

Then, suddenly, many glowing green pigs came out from the ground. Some are big and some are small. They look pretty scary as they glared at Red.

"My loyal subjects, destroy him!" Leonard pointed at Red. The pigs rushed forward to attack him, but Red is too fast, he punched the pigs near him, and Chuck ran to his side to fight with him.

Meanwhile, Aggie climbs up the bridge, trying to call help from her friends, "Red! Chuck! Help!"

"Watch out!" Red yelled as he struggled to break free from the grip of the glowing pigs.

Then, Leonard rushed towards Aggie, and grabbed her by her hair. "Fare-thee-well, your highness." He throws her down, sending her back over the edge.

Aggie struggles to hang on with both hands as the part of the broken bridge had been separated from the concrete pillar and was now moving downwards with her on it.

"Hold on!" Red shouted as he punched the pigs, and turned to Chuck, "Chuck, go on, and help her! I'll take them from here!"

With his speed, Chuck can pass through the glowing pigs, and rushed to help Aggie.

The pillar-chunk had nearly gone completely over the edge now, only held back by the bond of the ever-stretching steel-fence. Aggie was holding on as well as she could, while Leonard was distracted with victory.

"Finally, the last Cuckanov death!" Leonard cackled as he was about to blast Aggie with his reliquary. Suddenly, Chuck pulled him out of the way, but Leonard blasts the canary with his reliquary, letting out a small pig with wings attacking him.

Leonard turns back to see Aggie gone and assumes she has fallen. He laughs with joy.

"NO!" Red yelled, breaking out the pigs' grips and running to the edge and looking down.  
Far below in the river, large rings and sinking pieces of rubble could be seen. He tried yelling again and made a motion to dive down after her, only to be grabbed from behind the two pigs.

"Long live the Cuckanovs!" Leonard cried out, laughing and doing a triumphant little dance.

"Right!" Came a voice that made the pig choke on his laughter and look around. Aggie, looking furious, was standing just three meters away from her. "I couldn't have said it better myself!"

The white bird ran with an astounding speed towards Leonard and knocked her down. Aggie struggled with Leonard, trying to get a hold of the reliquary. But the pig got the upper hand and pushed the bird off him. Getting to his feet, the relic still dangling from his hand, he prepared for one final attack against his fuzzy-feathered foe. But it was then that Chuck, who fought off the pig minion until it was disappeared, re-appeared, quickly snatched the reliquary with such force from the undead Leonard's hand. Chuck quickly tossed the reliquary to the ground as it rolls right at Aggie's foot. Leonard cowers. His power is gone.

The young royal bird placed one of her feet on top of it and held it in its place. Cracks immediately started to appear along it, the green insides shifting to a fiery red and yellow. As Leonard's power broke, the forces that kept the minion pigs up and moving dissipated, and they crumbled into dust while holding Red. Before it disappeared, the pig punched Red's head, and fell down and hit his head against the hard ground, losing his consciousness. Aggie glanced at her side, and seeing Red lying still, perhaps dead, her face hardened.

"This is for Red!" Aggie said, and then immediately stomped at it hardly.

"Give that back!" Leonard yelled and rushed forward.

"This is for my family!" The white bird said and stomped again. Ethereal energy had now started to seep from the cracks.

"I'LL TEAR YOU TO PIECES!" The pig screamed in rage and desperation.

"And this, is for YOU!" Aggie said, raising her foot one last time. "Fare-thee-well!" Using every ounce of her remaining strength, she pushed her foot down onto to the reliquary, which finally shattered and exploded.

Pushed back by the force of it, Aggie and Leonard flew back in opposite directions and landed four meters apart.

From the place of the broken reliquary came a storm of the green smoke which flew into the air above the two. The pig looked up at it with unrivaled terror. "NO!" He screamed as the smoke, who had turned into a swarm of little green demon-pigs again, swooped down and covered the fat pig.

Aggie hurries over to Red, who lies there, still as death. She gently strokes his feathers.

The pig demons attacked Leonard like a stream of piranhas, ripping and consuming his flesh and his bones. After the demons were done with their wicked deed, they disintegrated in a flash one final flash of green, leaving only a trail of smoke.

Aggie just ignored the smoke. Only she was focus was an unconscious Red.

"Oh no. Red." She cried and began to shake him, but he remained unresponsive, his head rocking back and forth like a puppet, all the while sporting a bad gash on his forehead. Aggie closed her eyes, and mumbled mournfully, while Chuck also thought Red was dead, and shook down his head in sadness for the "loss" of his friend.

Suddenly, Red got up and groaned. Aggie heard, and punched his face in surprised, and chuck jumped happily to see his friend alive.

"Red!" Aggie laughed and basically jumped and hugged him tightly.

"Ow, ow, ow! Aggie, I can't breathe!" Red choked.

"Sorry!" Aggie said and releases him.

"Yeah, I know… All men are babies…" The cardinal mumbled ironically.

Aggie smiled, but then looked at Red with a questioning look. "I thought you were going back to St. Petersbird."

"I was." Red answered

"You didn't take the… ?"

"I couldn't."

"… Why?"

Red looked at Aggie in the eyes, moving closer to her face. "Because I…"

Without continuing, Aggie and Red moved their faces closer to each other, their eys narrowed, and their beaks are inches away from each other,

"Ahem!"

Aggie and Red stopped and looked at Chuck, who in his arms carried the sparkling crown. He looked back and forth between the two love birds, smiling smugly.

"Oh." Aggie took the crown, and looked at Ree, who looked at her with uncertain eyes.

"They're waiting for you." He said.

Aggie looked down at the sparkling crown again in deep thought, and looked at Red again. She remembered what her grandmother said. If knowing what she was is what she wants, what if she chooses what her heart wants.

* * *

 **Sorry, it took so long. I was busy in school, and piano pracrices. I hope you liked it.**


	11. A perfect beginning

At her mansion, Matilda held on to Aggie's sparkling crown, then read a note.

"Dear Grandma, wish me luck.  
We'll be together in Tropigal Paradise again soon.  
So long!"

Willow, consumed by ravenous curiosity, walked over and peaked at the contents of the letter. Matilda the note to Willow as the blue bird reads it and cries. "They've eloped. Isn't it romantic. It's a perfect ending."

"No." Matilda said and turned around, a soft smile on her face. "It's a perfect beginning."

Matilda looked at her window, smiling, feeling happy and proud of her granddaughter.

At the shore of the island of Tropigal Paradise, there was a boat, and on it was Aggie and Red. Red slipped the engagement ring through Aggie's finger. They smiled at each other, they engaged in a waltz very much like the one they had danced on the deck of Roviosha. Except this time, the dance was so passionate and flowing that if accompanied by music.

Aggie and Red looked deeply into each other's eyes, and creating an alloy of pure emotion between them, and as they leaned to each other's face, Aggie placed her hand on his cheek, and Red wrapped his arms around her waist, and finally, expressing their feelings for each other, their beaks touched into a passionate kiss.

Chuck was on a relaxing chair, watching the love birds' romantic scene. He blushes, and covered his eyes in half-disgust, not wanting to see his two friends kissing.

As their beaks apart, Red picked Aggie up in his arms, and playfully spun her around.

The sound of their laughter travelled to the sea that night as they began on their new journey, which this time it was not made in pursuit of either a past or wealth. Heck, neither Aggie nor Red were probably sure where this new adventure would take them, but the important thing was that they would find it out together.

Meanwhile, Ross was imitating the love birds' dance. Suddenly a female pig with a pink bow on her head appeared behind him, and poked his back. Ross turned around and noticed her, and he began to blush. "Ah, hello…"

The female pig embraced him, and kissed him. Ross giggled lovingly, and closed the curtains. "So long, everybody!"

THE END

* * *

 **Yay! It's done. I hope it's okay. Pls comment. I'll edit some scene that were copied sooner or later. I would like to thank CB1610 and brandonchasepowell for helping me making this story**.


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